translated from the Arabic by Abdullah al-Udhari 


Ask the lightning when its roar rips the night calm if it’s seen my man as it makes me think of him. 


By Allah, it shakes my heart and turns my eyes into a raining sky. 


 

سلوا البارقَ الخفّاقَ واللّيلُ ساكنٌ أظلَّ بأحبابي يذكّرُني وَهنا لعمري لقد أهدى لقلبيَ خفقةً وأمطَرَني منهل عارضِه الجفنا

“[Ask the lightning]” by Hafsa bint al-Ḥājj al-Rakūniyya is published in Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology by Abdullah al-Udhari (Saqi Books, 1991). Used with the permission of Saqi Books.