1. O hour in which I was filled with his beauty
I implore you, reminisce with me of your like

2. And I know that in distance there is comfort
For one whose eyes are bewitched by a sorcerer

3. But I tried your nearness and hopes
So neither heart nor rock felt at ease

4. Nor did the taste of nearness fill my heart or hopes
Nor did either state settle my thoughts

5. It is just like a soul deceiving itself
A man may deceive his soul though he is a poet

6. You pass by us like a short, blissful dream
Until you seem a bird in flight

7. Do I love you or draw you close? By God I
Do not know what secrets the conscience hides

8. Yet yearning for your memory strips me bare
As a stranger yearns for his family from afar

9. For you are my hell in life and my heaven
You are my enemy and staunch ally

10. You are the first thing to cross my mind
And the last thing to stir my thoughts

11. You have filled the valleys of my soul to overflowing
And imagined it a barren desert

12. Be strong in keeping the pact and its goodness
And woe to him if he forgets to remember

13. What a wretched burden that love carries
In the destiny it imposes on my life

14. I see its bliss and delight
Strike us suddenly like a flashing spark

15. Can you buy pleasures without some of them
From bloody pain and that which we dread?

16. My quest is not for eyes’ sorcery as though
When my eyes meet theirs, they are brilliant stars

17. Nor the radiance of a soft cheek as though
It was nurtured on roses through the ages

18. Nor lips that round as though readied
For a kiss when longing flares

19. Eyes may scorch with a glowing glance and choke
Scents, while your circling lips spin webs

20. Rather, I seek when my passion ignites
A heart to confide in and a mind to counsel

21. A heart to find solace in my worries
And unburden my sorrows and take stock

22. As a bee once shuddered over a flower
Lamenting passion and conversing

23. I spent my life among the ruins of those departed
Wherever I roamed, graves met my eyes

24. Those were my brothers, chosen and preferred
With affection, though my heart quailed

25. Woe to the living who delight
In none but those the graves embrace

26. I fool myself about them and deceive myself
While the adviser and plotter fools me

27. I have no business with them, except
My state resembles theirs, and we are alike

28. So visitor I'd ransom with my soul, if he but knew
I weaken—help me if my ally fails

29. And I spent my youth averse, unfulfilled
Of what eyes yearn to behold

30. But between me and my wants stand barriers
And roads to springs are blocked

31. Return to me, for I don't control my course
And be true, if you're a thankful ally

32. Grant me, if you wish, dead and visited
For doesn't the departed have visitors?