1. The pre-dawn travelling has cautioned us that separation is more painful than parting.
The chains of estrangement between us have converged.

2. How strange! Even your imagination does not flow.
And even when the remembrance of you occupies me,

3. I engage in conversations that dissuade my soul from that remembrance.
An aversion has come over me from your aversion, however slight,

4. And in despair there is that which consoles me from tempting hope.
You are nothing but a need of the soul. Had it seen

5. A way to it, it would have pursued it, with its veil torn.
You have controlled, O harshest of hearts,

6. My heart, more gentle than wine.
You are of beautiful charm, temptation of youth,

7. Perfect of limb, like an untouched pearl.
When we meet and passion has dressed

8. Its shoulders, more potent and stronger than magic,
It sways upon the bamboo cane of the curved spear

9. And strips off the veil of soft leather over the full moon.
It presents to us two kinds of blush on its cheek

10. And reveals to us two strands of pearl teeth from its smile.
Whatever beauty and grace you wished from it

11. Dawned upon me when I could not fend off youth.
Nights I wandered in the darkness of my youth,

12. Intending by it to hunt gazelles from the rocks.
But when the grey hair of old age appeared,

13. Maidens sought from me a debt without excuse.
I came to regret what had passed

14. And to prefer what of life remained for me,
For not a moment, weary of it, did I shorten

15. My passion for the darling of robes.
Prohibition prohibited me from unleashing my thoughts, not my blindness,

16. And from hearing the dignified estrangement without murmuring.
The forms of lords jostled before my sight

17. And the mysteries of passions surged in my breast.
The pilgrimage of my remembrance fills my eyes with tears

18. Were it not for the beauty of patience, I would let it flow.
To God I complain of the scarcity of patience, for

19. It burdens me with an affair harder than patience.
And I know in ordeals the like of its reward,

20. Yet my well-being is more craved by me than reward.
I seek refuge with the Lord of creation from the evil of His creation,

21. And from my desires, for they are the greatest evil.
And from the evil of slanderers who have strayed and gone astray

22. With the mention of people's faults out of unfounded suspicion.
How many a critic of me has my avoidance of insulting him restrained me,

23. Fearful of God, or else my dignity raised above his dignity.
I see while angrily gazing as if I do not see,

24. And I know without expressing as if I do not know.
I repent to the Merciful for every disliked deed

25. I have done and whatever wisdom of poetry I have wasted,
And I had renounced poetry, fearing sin

26. In my judgment and some suspicion invites condemnation.
And a confusion has been renewed in me, returning to poetry

27. With excellent mastery, until I have tightened my resolve by it.
O father of Hasan, seeker of every merit

28. With as much power as he has seized and good fortune he has obtained.
In whatever conditions a questioner finds him

29. He meets him with the good news and glad tidings.
And he has bestowed graciously and abundantly gifts

30. Upon every complainer and provoker, whether angry or pleased.
And he has preferred graciousness over every envier

31. So that the enviers could find no alternative but gratitude.
How then can you be compared to a cloud when

32. Your hands rise above whatever rain it contains?
And how can it be said you are the sea while you,

33. When asked to give, always give generously and bountifully?
You excel the lion of the thicket, yet you are a hunter

34. Of the wild lions of battle without fang or claw.
You were rewarded for the brethren with good, for only

35. For their benefit have you lent your ear in public and private.
You defend them in plain view with your wealth,

36. And you make them partners in all you attain of superiority.
May God prolong well being and wealth

37. That you may remain well and the poor become wealthy.
And may your noble sons live and be endowed

38. For the length of time with prevailing command and authority.
And may the festivals continue to return to you

39. From one Feast to the next Feast.
Below it is what my mind has coined

40. And my nature created and thought has purified,
It has brought you strange words containing

41. Meanings like what joins mud to chalk.