1. I recalled Layla and the past years
And days when we feared no censurer

2. And a day when in Layla's shade my shade shortened
She distracted me, though I was no wanton

3. With two braziers Layla's fire kindled, and my companions
With limpid wine that flows from the wine-skins

4. The wise one of the folk saw a star
Rise in the night's darkness, lone and Yemenite

5. I said to him, "Nay, but Layla's fire blazed up
High, so its light appeared to me."

6. Would the riders had not cut across the sands!
Would that the sands had swallowed the riders by night!

7. O night, how many grave affairs I have
When I come to you - I know not what they are!

8. O my friends, if you will not weep for me, I will seek
A friend who, when I shed tears, will weep for me.

9. I mount no steed but restively,
Nor chant poetry save plaintively,

10. Yet God may bring together the parted twain
After they thought they ne'er would meet again.

11. God assail folk who say, "We've found
All life long the love-cure is pain!"

12. By Layla - that veiled one - I swear
She returns our eve-visit at morn.

13. Layla's sons are grown, her daughter's sons too,
Yet my bonds with Layla are still binding me.

14. When we foregather where we take delight,
They draw her from me till I lose my place.

15. God water Layla's neighbors scattered far,
The camels' grazing tore her tents away!

16. Want or wealth, Layla forgot me never,
Until I embraced debauchery.

17. No women dyed bits of camel-skin dark
To look like Layla, then displayed them to me.

18. O my friend, by God I have no power
Over what God ordained for Layla or me.

19. He decreed her for another, afflicted me with love of her -
Why not test me with other than Layla?

20. You told me Teyma is a halt
For Layla, when summer casts down the curtain.

21. These months of summer have sped from us
Yet Teyma hurls no missile at Layla for me.

22. Would that a tribesman's home were in Yamamah,
While mine stood on Hazramawt's heights!

23. Why is their fortune blest in parting Layla from me,
When they do not treat her kindly?

24. High I raised love for Layla, but breach on breach befell,
Till all men knew of it.

25. O Lord, then make the love between us balanced,
A burden on neither her nor me!

26. No star I use for guiding rises, no dawn,
But rouses thoughts of her in me.

27. No mile I rode from Damascus, no Suhayl
Rose for Damascus folk, but rose for me.

28. No name she was called by the folk I heard
Save my tears soaked my mantle through.

29. No south wind blew to her land by night
But I was compliant to the wind.

30. If they deny me Layla and guard her land from me,
They cannot guard the rhymes from me!

31. I confess to God that I love her -
That is my stance; hers towards me, what?

32. God ordained the approved conduct from her to another,
Ordained for me longing and passion.

33. O mother of Malik, the thing I hoped for
Has turned my hair white and bewildered my heart.

34. Night after night I count the nights -
Long have I lived, not counting the nights.

35. I slip out among the houses, hoping
To speak of you to my soul in solitude.

36. Praying, I turn my face towards her
Though the praying-place is behind me.

37. No pagan am I, but love of her
And the sore anguish have confused the healer.

38. Of names, I love those that fit hers,
Resemble it, or flow from it.

39. O my friend, Layla is the ultimate desire and aim -
Who then can avail me with Layla, or her with me?

40. By my life, you made me weep, dove of Unaqa,
And made tender eyes shed tears!

41. O my friend, after seeing my want go unsold
What do I hope for from life?

42. Layla wrongs me, then claims I have recovered -
Does she think the folk do not know my state?

43. Never, my friend, have we seen two like us,
More staunchly loyal despite the foe.

44. Two friends who hope not for union, nor see
Two friends save hoping to meet!

45. By God, I am shy to offer you wished-for union
Or have you offer it, for shame.

46. Some say love-mad Aamer feigns madness -
I said, "How can I feign what is in me?"

47. Despair or lovesickness has struck me
So refrain such talk, it fits you not.

48. O mother of Malik, when Time proves long
My weird and your weird will govern.

49. When my eyes are darkened with yours, blessings ensue,
Light overwhelms my heart's gloom.

50. You, if you wished, could make my life wretched;
You, if you wished, could make me fortunate.

51. You it is - no friend nor foe can see
The brightness you left in me, but will mourn me.

52. Forbidden me to visit Layla,
Yet she is charged with my visiting her!

53. Roaming the wilderness, I find myself
Urging my mount to incline towards her.

54. Right, if she be rightward, though Desire disputes with me
Over turning my left side thither.

55. Drowsiness comes on me without fatigue -
Perhaps a phantom of you will meet my phantom.

56. It is sorcery, but sorcery has its counterspell
While I find no charm against it all my days.

57. When darkness falls and you are before us,
Your memory is enough to guide our mounts.

58. The fire of longing flared up within me
Until its glow was fixed in my heart.

59. Ho riders of Yemen, swing by us
For Yemen of Najran is friendly ground!

60. Let me ask, does Nu'man range after us still?
To us Nu'man's belly-vale is a homeland.

61. Ho my doves of Nu'man's belly-vale, you roused
Passion in me when you sang to me!

62. You made me weep amid my friends, careless
Of tears, had I been solitary.

63. Ho two ring-doves, answer each other
In your melody, then add rhymes about me!

64. If you are confused, or wish to follow
The ruins of the sands, then follow me!

65. Would I knew what ails Layla, and what ails me,
What the youth remains to me, now grey hairs show!

66. Ho you, Layla's lover, do you not see
Whom you court, or with whom you came a-wooing?

67. If friends become viperish, mother of Malik,
The love in my heart is unchanging.

68. So, my Lord, since you made Layla the wish,
Favor me as you favored her with me!

69. Else make her hateful to me, and her family -
With Layla I have met tribulation.

70. For one like Layla a man kills himself,
Though I despair of Layla utterly.

71. O my friend, if they are niggardly with Layla, bring me
Bier and shroud, and pray forgiveness for me!

72. And if I die from lovesickness, convey
To the sun-like one my greetings.