إن غاض دمعك والأحباب قد بانوا

فكل ما تدعي زور وبهتان

If your tears have ebbed though your loved ones have departed,

Then all you claim is falsehood and fabrication.

وكيف تأنس أو تنسى خيالهم

وقد خلا منهم ربع وأوطان

And how can you find solace, or forget their image,

When their dwelling and homelands lie empty of them?

لا أوحش الله من قومٍ نأوا فنأى

عن النواظر أقمار وأغصان

May God not leave us bereft of those who went afar; with them went

Beyond our gaze, moons and boughs.

ساروا فسار فؤادي إثر ظعنهم

وبان جيش اصطباري ساعة بانوا

They set out, and my heart journeyed in their wake,

And the army of my endurance departed the moment they did.

لا افتر ثغر الثرى من بعد بعدهم

ولا ترنح أيك لا ولا بان

May the earth's mouth never smile after their departure,

Nor any grove sway—no, nor any bān-tree.

أجرى دموعي وأذكى النار في كبدي

غداة بينهم هم وأحزان

My tears were made to flow, and the fire in my liver was stoked,

On the morning of their parting, by anguish and sorrows.

طوفان نوحٍ ثوى في مقلتي وفي

طي الحشا لخليل الله نيران

Noah's flood has lodged in my eyes, and in

The folds of my breast are fires for the Friend of God.

لو كابد الصخر ما كابدت من كمدٍ

فتكم لجاد له أحد ولبنان

If rock had endured the anguish I have endured,

[Unclear opening word]—Uhud and Lebanon would have wept for it.

وذاب يذبل من وجدي ورض على

رضوى ولان لما ألقاه ثهلان

And Yadhbul would have melted from my longing and been shattered upon

Radwa, and Thahlan would have softened at what I endure.

يا من تملك رقي حسن سلطان

حسنك مالي منه إحسان

O you, I am enslaved by the fair sway

Of your beauty; no kindness comes to me from it.

كن كيف شئت فمالي بدلاً عنك من بدلٍ

أنت الزلال لقلبي وهو ظمآن

Be as you wish; I have no substitute to take your place.

You are pure water for my heart, and it is thirsty.