1. Alas! I see not the events either praised or blamed,
For their tyranny is not through ignorance, nor their patience through wisdom.

2. To the like of what the youth was, the youth returns,
He goes back as he began and gambles as he shot his arrow.

3. May God grant you, grieved as you are for your beloved,
A slain victim of passion with no faults ascribed to her.

4. I yearn for the cup she drank from,
And love the dust that covers her and the earth that hides her.

5. I wept for her in secret while she lived,
And we both tasted the agony of losing a companion.

6. Had separation killed all lovers,
Some countries would be desolate with no trace left.

7. I knew the nights before they did us wrong,
But when they darkened me they taught me nothing new.

8. Their benefits, not harming others’ gain,
Are to be fed and watered, though remaining hungry and thirsty.

9. My letter came to her after despair and consolation,
So she died of joy for me; may I die of sorrow for her!

10. My heart is forbidden to feel joy, for I count
That which killed her after it as deadly poison.

11. She wonders at my handwriting and speech as though
She sees the lines of the text as something novel and sublime,

12. And kisses it until its ink becomes
The fruit of her eyes and the fangs of her mouth.

13. Her flowing tears dried up and her eyelids closed,
And my love left her heart after it had hurt her.

14. Nothing soothed her but death, which is
Worse than the sickness that took away sickness.

15. I sought good fortune for her but she missed it, and it missed me,
Though she would have been content with me had I been content with her judgment.

16. So I started beseeching the clouds over her grave,
When I used to beseech tumult and war.

17. Before death I thought little of intimacies,
But now the least of them has become the greatest.

18. You carried me off, but I took revenge on you,
So how can I take revenge on you for the fever?

19. The world did not narrow on me due to its confinement,
But because I cannot see you with an eye.

20. Alas! That I cannot kiss or embrace
Your head and chest once filled with resolve.

21. Or meet your sweet soul which was as though
It had ambergris for a body.

22. Had you not been the daughter of a most noble father,
Your mighty essence would have been a mother to me.

23. If the day of the gloaters rejoices in her day,
She has given birth in me, to spite their noses.

24. He lived in exile, esteeming none but himself,
Submitting only to his Creator’s judgment.

25. Roaming nowhere but the heart of the desert,
Finding nothing but generosity to be sweet.

26. They say to me, “What do you want in every town?”
What I want is simply to be called by name.

27. As if their sons know that I
Am a foundling dependent on their bounty!

28. Joining water and fire in my hands
Is no harder than joining war and wisdom.

29. But I seek the help of its flies
And in any case commit myself to rashness.

30. And make it my greeting on the day of meeting,
Lest I be not the brave masterful hero.

31. When my resolve falls short of a feared goal,
The farthest thing possible has found no resolve.

32. I am of a people whose souls
Are too proud to dwell in flesh and bone.

33. This is how I am, O world, so if you wish, begone!
And O soul, increase your steps away from it.

34. No moment has passed but debased me,
Nor have I had a bosom friend who accepts injustice.