1. O obstinate heart beset with blame,
Awake to love’s longing, if sense you claim!

2. Awake! for lovers all are now awake,
Your love for Layla leads but to mistake.

3. All who love have given up love save you alone,
Pledged to Layla, helpless and o’erthrown.

4. My heart replied, ‘Blame not, but yourself appall,
Who rushes to condemn me, blameful all.’

5. Your eye misled your heart to bear a load
Too heavy to be borne along love’s road.

6. God rid me of the friend who sells a friend!
I said, ‘God save me that I do offend.’

7. To her I swore, ‘Layla, my vows are true,
Loyal am I, and faithful in love to you.’

8. She said, ‘You sinned.’ I said, ‘A sin confessed, unknown;
No sin is mine, so gentle pardon shown.’

9. Chide me, if you will, call me to account,
Kill me, if you choose, your judgement I'll not count.

10. Slow crawls my day, until it irks me so,
But when night maddens me the hours swifter flow.

11. You were as the sly wolf that told the sheep,
‘I’ll watch while you graze,’ planning deceitful sleep.

12. ‘Was it not you,’ she said, ‘who railed at me?’
He said, ‘When did I?’ She: ‘Last year was, maybe.’

13. He: ‘Nay, I was born this year.’ She: ‘Liar known!
Come, eat me up, for rage has overthrown.’

14. Like the bird-butcher, busily tying snares,
With eyes alert to catch them unawares,

15. Look not, Layla, unto my watching eyes,
But look at my hands, and what they do surprise.