1. In the wilderness lies his abode, his being he withholds
When smooth covers make his neck yield

2. His cheek is graced by a beauty mark like a cup of wine
His garb is sealed by the musk's scent, the musk it exhales

3. Why would it not be musk when his guide is fragrance?
A gazelle, and in the black of eyes there lies its India

4. Do you see if days with him a night they’d bless?
And after ill-fate, my luck makes his granddad glad

5. Let the hand of prohibition wrap his waist as a barrier
So the Hijaz's gorge will incline towards me and guide me to it

6. When dawn peeks out from his folds, I find guidance
Through it in the dark night and in the morn I praise it

7. Surely sleep's sanity strayed in him and did not find guidance
By his gray hair when sanity did not reach his mind’s maturity

8. When a loose branch from his boughs inclines
Layla counts it among her missives as most precious

9. I'm amazed that fire kindles from the cold of his mouth
How can an opposite gather in a place with its opposite?

10. I doubled my night talk until I was spent, so if it happens
To be from the second essence, then I am its sole exemplar

11. Thus my being is like a meaning refined in the mind of a critic
Even if the translator's mind and his appraisal fathom it