1. Do not fret on the day of parting, oh my soul, or be anxious,
For every gathering is destined to disperse.

2. God has decreed that the hand of sorrow
Should touch our spirits so they may grow refined.

3. The stars shine brightest against the dark of night;
If not for the gloom of night they would not shine.

4. Embers give no light if they do not burn bright,
Dew drops do not glisten if they are not lit.

5. I do not cite examples praising parting -
Would that parting and its day had never come to be!

6. Leave-taking holds nothing but stammering tongues
Confused souls and overwhelming anxiety.

7. I chided my heart when its throbbing grew too wild:
It answered, “Let me throb if I cannot be still.”

8. I am a bird that once freely roamed the meadows
And on the banks of the rippling brooks.

9. The sky then folded away my fields and horizons
To cage me in this narrow prison of iron.

10. No! I am a king who woke up to find
My throne and crown were gone, and all my finery.

11. My excuses failed me, my wisdom left me
When I heard the tale of that wretched heart.

12. If life had favored us we would not have scattered
A flock we had assembled, we would not have parted.

13. To God I bid farewell to you, maidens of beauty,
And the hill of spices, magnificent and alluring!

14. How often I paused by the bank of its river,
My soul drinking deep while my soul was drinking.

15. Learning from it modesty, softness and clemency,
And forgiving the foolishness of the ignorant.

16. It gave life to the fields then departed as though
It had given them nothing, claiming no merit.

17. Who does not know that the wakefulness of its stream
Comes from the grace of this tranquil spirit?

18. I wasted my joy on preachers till I found it
In a silent mentor who did not preach.

19. The cities and villages brim with its blessings,
Its gifts, while it lives the life of a pauper.

20. Without it no barren land would turn green again;
Without you, oh friends, no tree of hope would bloom.

21. Life presented its beauty to you
And you chose what was fairest and most fitting.

22. I am one with you in a fragrant garden
Where everything is in harmony and proportion.

23. Scent rises from all its flowers -
Pass by a blossom and you will smell its fragrance.

24. To God I bid you farewell, to its glory!
It is Lesser Rome, and the mound of Jullaq.

25. Its stars were gentle to me, modest even,
I almost felt them resting upon my forehead.

26. It was as though you were they, as though
Your spirits flowed from their shining stream.

27. My youth came flooding back when I descended upon it,
Today I walk out of my youth restored.

28. Tomorrow I will soar away from it recklessly,
With a cloven heart and a weeping eye.

29. Its hills and domes and palaces will vanish from me
Behind the blue veil of the sky.

30. Yet its image will linger before my mind’s eye,
Some visions are consolation though they be false.