عام مضى

A Year Has Passed

1. A year has passed; my love has never faded,
   and still my tears pour down, tear after tear.
2. My sighs keep rising, and the fire
   within my heart still blazes fierce.
3. The night fills up my sight with darkness,
   all but the moon's light.
4. My yearning eyes gaze out into the distance,
   searching for a trace
5. of dawn that smiles as it comes up,
   embracing the pupils of my eyes,
6. of the sun that rises radiant,
   its splendour wiping out my sleepless nights,
7. thirsting for where happiness
   is never mixed with weariness.
8. And still I go on scattering the joy
   out of my smile among the people.
9. I loved her in the past;
   I love her in the present;
10. and I shall love her in the future,
    and fate will never make me fear.
11. She has possessed my heart entire,
    and filled my sleepless nights with thought.
12. I never thought that one day,
    with my heart breaking,
13. I'd pass my evenings and my mornings far
    from her whom, of all mankind, I held so dear,
14. feeding on the fire of passion,
    or drinking down the cup of weariness,
15. or, racked by separation's torments,
    becoming like a dying man.
16. My silence clamours in my heart;
    but when has fate shown mercy?
17. A hope keeps stealing to my heart,
    and wishes throng to whisper in my ear,
18. and brighter still they glitter in the gloom,
    and even burst in leaf, like trees.
19. Woe is me for my streaming tears,
    falling like drops of rain!
20. O burning tear within my eye,
    melting away, and taking your own life¹!
21. Enough for me that I have kept my pledge,
    and that my longing waits.

English translation prepared by artificial intelligence and reviewed against the Arabic for accuracy of meaning and rhetoric.