1. I am not the fairest at first sight
She is the world's desire, as is her right

2. So tell me her story if you know it well
And speak with reverence when you of her tell

3. I saw her image, witnessed her grace
Beheld her beauty in its rightful place

4. My soul does yearn, and she is indeed
Above all beauty, flawless without need

5. And my longing grows, for she's divine
A voice obscured, a vision undefined

6. I searched the dawn and darkness for her face
Reached out my hands to touch the stars in space

7. Bewildered they, and I bewildered more
A longing lover, wavering evermore

8. The stars in their knowledge or in their ignorance
Trembled in the vastness of their expanse

9. Their rays danced upon the veil of night
Hope shone in me, though not too bright

10. The sea, how I asked, laughed in its tide
At my broken voice that could not hide

11. I returned in thought and dream that swirled
A carried dove in a chaotic world

12. The ghosts of ages past seemed to conspire
Laughing on the shore at my desire

13. How many halls I entered in, searching
Those four corners, always emerging

14. If a phantom appeared, I said look, my eye
Or a voice rang, I said listen, my ear

15. But those inside were lost like me
And those outside could not see

16. They said, be patient, she's veiled from sight
Except for those ascetic and contrite

17. So I buried my joys and dreams forsook
Love's verses from my being shook

18. Smashed the cups from which I sipped
Fasted from my food though hunger nipped

19. Thought myself hastening nearer to her
But found myself nearer to my burial

20. None more foolishly led me astray
Than those whose counsel I did obey

21. From greed and passion I did abstain
Yet none succeed who do not entertain

22. I was a garden stripped of its flowers
Diverse, colorful, once towering

23. To feel the sunlight in its dust
Unveiled, to meet the winds robust

24. But over it came the autumn shroud
Darkening that place beneath its cloud

25. I was a bird stripped of feathers bright
Harmonious, shining, once so light

26. To lessen the burden, to the ground it fell
The ants marched on without parallel

27. I laid down thinking she was wisdom's daughter
But woke up laughing at useless slaughter

28. Not all is loss in this world of woe
Beside the pitfalls some comforts glow

29. From him it hides his hopes and pain
Veils his essence deep within its reign

30. His day's events with past and future blend
All a confusion without end

31. Would that imagination's excess fade
Its scenes erased as if never made

32. When I dreamed of her, I dreamed of a flower unplucked
Of an unreached star in the skies stuck

33. Then I awoke to find in my bedstead
None but my loss and pillow for my head

34. He who drinks from the streams of his illusion
Cuts short his life in useless confusion

35. The spring left no brook but shadeless
No garden but fruitless and waterless

36. Winter came, in its clouds no rain
In its thunder no sorrow or pain

37. Lightning flashed, empty I found its flare
No lightning afire in the barren air

38. My hands withered, astray went this lad
His wit led him stray from the wise and staid

39. Until despair spread its mist overhead
Veiling me, my place covered and hid

40. Hope's threads were severed, once unbroken
Squeezed by sorrow, my tears were the token

41. I saw her, felt her in my streaming tears
When wisdom comes late, nothing appears

42. The one I lost was with me all along