تذكرتُ ليلى والسنين الخواليا ( المؤنسة )

I remembered Layla and the bygone years, and days when we feared no censor in our play.

And a day like the shaft of a spear whose shadow I shortened with Layla; she distracted me, though I was not wont to be distracted.

At Thamadayn, the fire of Layla gleamed while my companions at Dhat al-Ghada urged the swift camels onward.

The sharp-eyed man of the tribe said, 'I caught sight of a lone star shining in the pitch darkness of the southern night.'

I told him, 'Nay, it is the fire of Layla, kindled high up; its radiance towered and so it appeared to me.'

Would that the mounts of the folk had not crossed al-Ghada, and would that al-Ghada had kept pace with the mounts through the nights!

O Layla, how many pressing needs I have! When I came to you by night, I knew not what they were.

O my two friends, if you will not weep for me, I shall seek a friend who, when my tears run dry, will weep for me.

I climb the high ridges out of sheer yearning, and I compose poems only to heal myself.

And God may yet bring together two scattered souls after they have firmly thought they would never meet again.

God curse the people who claim we have found a lasting cure for love throughout the ages!

My memory of Layla is when she was behind a bolted door, turning the cattle back to us at dusk.

The sons of Layla grew up, and the sons of her son grew up, yet Layla's precious place in my heart remains just as it was.

Whenever we sat in a gathering we relished, they whispered behind our backs until they made my place wearisome.

God bless the female neighbors of Layla, whom destiny carried far away to settle in the distant reaches!

Neither poverty nor wealth made me forget Layla, nor did repentance, until I embraced the grave-pillars.

Nor did women who dyed a stiff, unyielding lock to resemble Layla, then paraded her before me, distract me.

O my two companions, by God, I hold no power over what God decreed concerning Layla, nor what He decreed for me.

He decreed her for another and afflicted me with her love; would that He had afflicted me with something other than Layla!

You informed me that Tayma is a lodging for Layla when summer casts down its heavy anchors.

Now these summer months have passed us by; why does separation continue to cast its deadly arrows at Layla?

If a malicious gossip lived in Yamama and my home were in the heights of Hadramawt, he would still find his way to me.

What ails them?—may God not better their state!—what share had they in severing the ropes of my union with Layla?

I used to rise above my love for Layla, but the constant unraveling and twisting wore me down until it overcame me.

O Lord, equalize love between me and her so that it falls evenly, neither against me nor for me.

No guiding star has ever risen, nor dawn broken, without stirring up the memory of her within me.

I have not traveled a mile from Damascus, nor has Canopus appeared to the people of the Levant, without appearing to me.

No female namesake of hers was ever mentioned in my presence among the people without soaking my garment with tears.

No southern wind blew toward her land in the dark of night but that I lay bowed toward the wind.

If you bar access to Layla and protect her lands from me, you will never be able to protect her from my rhymes.

I testify before God that I love her; this is what she has from me, so what does she have for me?

God decreed the outward reality of her for someone else, while decreeing longing and passionate grief solely for me.

O mother of Malik, that which I hoped for has aged my little heart and driven my soul wild with longing.

I count the nights, one night after another, yet I have lived for ages without ever counting the nights.

I slip away from between the houses, perhaps to converse with my soul about you in the quiet night.

I find that whenever I pray, I turn my face toward her, even if the prayer niche is behind me.

It is no polytheism on my part, but her love and the magnitude of my heartache have exhausted the treating physician.

I love of all names whatever matches her name, resembles it, or draws close to it.

O my two friends, Layla is my greatest need and desire; who can give me Layla, or who can be to her what I am?

By my life, you have made me weep, O pigeon of al-Aqiq, and you have made weeping eyes weep all the more.

O my two friends, what hope do I have in life after seeing my deepest need bartered away and denied to me?

Layla commits a wrong against me, then claims that I have forgotten her, though what ails me is hidden from no one.

I have never seen two companions in passionate love so intensely devoted to one another despite the spite of enemies.

Two companions who hope for no meeting, yet we never see two lovers who do not hope to meet.

Truly, I am too shy before you to let desires of union be raised, or to let you figure in my wishes.

People say, 'Perhaps the madman of Banu Amir is seeking forgetfulness.' I replied, 'How could that be, given what ails me?'

Total despair or the disease of passionate frenzy has struck me; beware of me, lest what ails me befall you!

When time stretches out interminably, O mother of Malik, the business belongs to the decree of death and to mine.

If my eye were to catch sight of your eye, I would remain in well-being and a dark cloud would lift from my heart.

You are the one who, if you willed, could embitter my livelihood, and you are the one who, if you willed, could bless my peace of mind.

You are she whose resulting emaciation leaves no friend or foe looking upon me without feeling pity.

Is visiting Layla forbidden to me, and is it treated as a sin on her part merely to set eyes upon me?

When I travel through the open earth, I find myself manipulating my saddle so it will not lean toward my side.

To the right if it is a right, but if it is a left, passion pulls my heart away from my left side.

I pull my garments over my head pretending to sleep though no drowsiness is on me, hoping a phantom of you might meet a phantom of mine.

She is sheer sorcery, save that sorcery admits of an incantation, whereas I find no enchanter for her through all time.

When we travel by night and you are ahead of us, the mere memory of you is guide enough for our mounts.

The fire of my yearning blazed up within my heart until it became a burning, searing heat inside my chest.

O you southern riders, turn aside toward us, for our longing has settled into a southern home.

I ask you: has the valley of Na'man flowed with rain after us? For the middle of Na'man is the dearest of valleys to us.

O two pigeons of the valley of Na'man, you have stirred up my passion when you began to sing for me.

You made me weep in the middle of my companions, though I would never care for the tears of my eyes if I were alone.

O two turtledoves, answer one another with your twin melodies, then coo softly to comfort me.

If you two are restless or wish to rejoin the ruins of al-Ghada, then follow me.

Ah, if only I knew what is between Layla and me, and what youth has to do with me after grey hairs have overtaken me!

O you who gossip about Layla, do you not see whom you are gossiping about, or whom you have come to as a spy?

Even if the loved ones pack up and depart, O mother of Malik, the love residing in my heart has not departed.

O Lord, since You made Layla my ultimate desire, weigh me down in her eyes just as You have weighted her in mine.

Or else make her and her family hateful to me, for indeed I have met with absolute disasters because of Layla.

Over the likes of Layla a man kills himself, even though I walk with complete despair where Layla is concerned.

O my two friends, if they withhold Layla, then bring near to me the bier and the shrouds, and ask forgiveness for me.

And if I die from the disease of passionate love, then deliver my greetings to the one who resembles the sunlight.