1. The answer I deem right
Would please the critics of reproach

2. That the proximity of spirits in this abode
Is reunion for those of affection

3. If the communion of one soul with another
In affection despite long separation

4. Were nonsense, then all that people have recounted
Of separation, weeping, and wakefulness by night

5. It was only remoteness that inflamed our hearts
And set free a flood of tears down the valley

6. We are far from dwellings where she settled
Who inspired passion in the bodies

7. Oh my people, would that my people had
In the meeting of souls and innermost hearts

8. It was only separation that sundered hearts
May God sunder the heart of this separation

9. So the stranger who settles in a land
While his passion is in other realms

10. And the distant one who resides in a place
Whose springtime seared the heart

11. Do you not see what availing comes
From cherishing love and passion's increase?

12. Only a heart tried before its sundering
Complains of estrangement

13. And if it is devoid of love, then estrangement
Is to it like union in oneness

14. The noble Prophet, God's blessings upon him,
Has provided us guidance in meaning:

15. "Report is not like witnessing
In issuing commands and directing."

16. And the venerable Friend demanded a meaning
From witnessing that increases faith

17. So he who said inhabiting a quarter of love
With love is beneficial in absence

18. Is wrong or deceiving, by those
Who were discerning and critics

19. There you have it, O sage of the age, an answer
Whose pillar was built by striving

20. And greetings of peace be upon you, O individual
Of the Mustafa's progeny, the guiding Prophet.