Classical Arabic Rain Poem
A pre-Islamic Arabic poem where rain symbolizes divine generosity, renewal, and life. Read the original Arabic verses with full English translation.
This poem, rooted in the pre-Islamic Jāhiliyya tradition, captures the Arab desert dweller's profound reverence for rain — the ultimate symbol of divine blessing, renewal, and life. The rain is not merely weather; it is the breath of the world returning after long silence.
Each verse carries precise sensory detail: the earth carpeted by water, a desert lizard picking its delicate path, trees stripped bare by wind, then overwhelmed by a great cloudburst bearing down from every quarter. The poem closes with the image of a horse — lean-flanked, taut, unstoppable — carrying the poet forward at dawn.
Classical Arabic Rain Poem
A pre-Islamic Arabic poem where rain symbolizes divine generosity, renewal, and life.
دَيْمَةٌ هَطْلَاءُ فِيهَا وَطَفٌ طَبَّقَ الْأَرْضَ تُجَرَّى وَتُدِرّ
A relentless, drizzling rain — dense and full — has blanketed the earth, streaming and swelling.
تُخْرِجُ الْوِدَّ إِذَا مَا أَشْجَذَتْ وَتُوَارِيهِ إِذَا مَا تَشْتَكِر
When the sky clears, it coaxes warmth and tenderness into the open — then draws a veil over them again as the clouds close in.
وَتَرَى الضَّبَّ خَفِيفاً مَاهِراً ثَانِياً بُرْثُنُهُ مَا يَنْعَفِر
And you see the desert lizard — agile, expert — picking its way with curled claws, never grazing the wet ground.
وَتَرَى الشَّجْرَاءَ فِي رَيِّقِهِ كَرُؤُوسٍ قُطِّعَتْ فِيهَا الْخُمُر
And you see the trees caught in the storm's first onslaught — like heads from which the veils have been suddenly stripped away.
سَاعَةً ثُمَّ انْتَحَاهَا وَابِلٌ سَاقِطُ الْأَكْنَافِ وَاهٍ مُنْهَمِر
For a moment — then a great cloudburst bore down upon them, crashing in from every quarter, its edges giving way, pouring without end.
رَاحَ تُمْرِيهِ الصَّبَا ثُمَّ انْتَحَى فِيهِ شُؤْبُوبُ جُنُوبٍ مُنْفَجِر
The east wind coaxed the cloud along — then the southern wind erupted into it with a sudden, violent squall, bursting open.
ثَجَّ حَتَّى ضَاقَ عَنْ آذِيِّهِ عَرْضُ خَيْمٍ فَخُفَاءٍ فَيُسُر
It poured until its surging waves overwhelmed the wide plains of Khaym, Khufāʾ, and Yusr.
قَدْ غَدَا يَحْمِلُنِي فِي أَنْفِهِ لَاحِقُ الْإِطْلَيْنِ مَحْبُوكٌ مُمِر
At dawn, bearing me forward on his breath — lean-flanked, tightly coiled, every muscle strung like a bowstring.
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