1. Alas, O raven of separation, why is it
Whenever I remember Layla you fly to my left?

2. Do you have knowledge of the unseen, or are you informing me
Of the living through what has already appeared to me?

3. Your legs have not carried a nest for eggs,
Nor has any bone in your wings weakened.

4. Of names, I love those that resemble hers,
Or are derived from it, or are closely associated with it.

5. Whenever she is mentioned before me
My tears wet my cloak.

6. Ask people, have I confided my secret in them -
A trusted brother or one openly displaying deception?

7. And I go out from among the houses, perhaps
I may talk to myself about her in private.

8. And I doze though no drowsiness is upon me,
Hoping an apparition of her meets my apparition.

9. I say, when my soul rises in passion,
A sigh it is accustomed to escapes it.

10. Yearning - and not a night passes for me
Except love subsides until the nights depart.

11. Nights and months pass and I do not see
My passion for you all but increasingly intensified.

12. And God may bring together the separated ones after
They had lost all hope of meeting.

13. My soul drops when I meet you -
They come out only to return unsuccessful.

14. If I live or perish, I shall not refrain
From protecting you all as long as my tongue can move.