1. The carnelian fell, though it seemed as if
It stood still - without having been tripped by precipice or height.

2. So it moans if you strip it bare, and it wails if
You load it, and it spends the night far from its abode.

3. O lightning, you have spurred on the sea of my tears,
And ignited the fire of passion in my ribs,

4. And fluttered about with gleams the bird of her caprice,
So she swoons, she with the wing of the broken one.

5. You have sparked the fire of longing while it was well-established,
So it dwindles while it remains in the lowliest place.

6. She did not know what aroused her, what aroused her,
So she was willful upon the back of the long-necked one.

7. She shunned her treaties and did not gain what
She sought, and she denied the way back.

8. She was shocked so she finds no joy in companionship
And was not graced at Layla's with the unveiling.

9. O you whose heart was torn apart by love
And who became drowned by a torrent of flowing tears,

10. How can you find peace away from the beautiful one after she
Came down to you from the highest abode?

11. O Amr, point the way to the carnelian and its people
For every broad expanse has grown constricted.

12. And excuse me - telling the tale of Layla was a slip
In her law, by her lover who holds himself bound by it.

13. I concealed it but it refused containment - such is the way of passion,
My friend, so my shame has spread whether I stay silent or speak.

14. The rock, though it be rock, cannot withstand
This - so how can my fragmented heart?