1. If the doves close my eyes
And the sound of my death echoes in the city

2. And roams the land from house to house
If you hear its echo and murmur

3. Do not wail “alas!” lest
The listeners grasp what you conceal

4. And if you visit me and see my face
Which death has erased its beauty and vigor

5. And see the friends kneeling around me
Lamenting the youth whom you recognize

6. And the wailing rises around you from those
Who befriended him and now excel in grieving him

7. Do not tear your dress in sorrow
Nor shed hot tears

8. Overcome despair and sit by my bier
Calmly, for I love tranquility

9. Silence in bereavement has meaning
That comforts sad souls

10. Better the miser’s few words about you
Than their plentiful but worthless condolences

11. And if you fear your passion will erupt
Exposing our hidden secrets

12. Go back, shed your tears in private
And wipe with your hands what you pour out

13. O daughter of dawn, a dead man loved you
You are not degraded by this

14. The light has left his eyes and vanished
With it the clear visions under his lids

15. Cry out, do you hear the heartbeats
You once heard throbbing in his chest?

16. Look, and think, how he who
His foe and friend could not discern

17. Lies silent, says and hears nothing
Cares not whether he is in a shroud

18. Or a dishonored, unmarked grave
And if the guards sleep weary

19. And you see his friends desert him
Come, kiss his lips and hands

20. And hair and brow
Before the veil is lowered over him

21. And he is hidden from your sight
Beware lest any watcher sees you

22. Though that is your greatest fear
When you are sure no one is there

23. Do not leave him before dawn opens his eyes
And when the terrible hour comes

24. And you see his guards carry him
And the bell tolls in sorrow

25. And the valley echoes back its tune
Send off the departed, who died intense with passion

26. As the drowned man hands the swimmer his life jacket –
With a look that tells the heavens

27. He died faithful to a true woman
The earth has folded whom it had unfolded alive

28. And overwhelmed whom it had obeyed
A fair face and a free heart and a guarded soul

29. Are now hidden in clay
And when you stop at the market

30. And remember him standing and still
Where you swore to stay true

31. And he swore he would never betray
Where you taught him verse, and he sang

32. So you could hear his tune
Remember him with lightning flickering east

33. And mourn him with rains pouring down
And when you walk in the garden one day

34. And tread its slopes and hollows
And recall the trysts of passion therein

35. When you maddened him with love
Where you taught him flirtation, till he thought

36. All the world was infatuated
Where your right hand monopolized him

37. Till he nearly forgot his left hand
Where you would sip from his love-sickness

38. And at times let him sip from yours
Till spring dressed the garden in a gown

39. That seemed most beautiful had you worn it
Then kiss every flower and branch

40. For I loved its blossoms and boughs
Tell the birds my lover died

41. Why, birds, do you not mourn him?
And when you sit alone at night

42. As profound sorrows engulf you
And see the clouds race west

43. As if possessed by madness
And sense from the stars aloofness

44. And shyness, and in the breeze apprehension
Reproach the remaining nights

45. And yearn for the precious ones past
Abandon the beautiful place, and visit

46. That grave, and give it life
Scatter roses around and over it

47. And plant a jasmine at his heart