1. I will vent though my breast is surely venting
And make heard, if events but lend an ear,

2. How often the likes of her have taxed me
When nothing urged me to show patience!

3. Can Harut’s sorcery ward off a gathering
Of deadly panic and imagining’s quest?

4. O dwellers in Babylon, my two friends, tell me:
A friend converses freely with his friend.

5. Does sorcery still exist as once I knew it?
Or have things happened to bring changes new?

6. See what Harut and Marut still possess;
Find out if they in that cave remain.

7. If not, then poetry which her eyes have lent him:
Ibn Marj al-Kuḥl is skillful in sorcery.

8. But, by Him who granted the topmost place
In poetry, hopes of Ibn Ḥujr are vain.

9. Did she not say: “Is not beauty his nature
And you fixed here, not soon to leave your place?”

10. Her words that my self-guidance was changed shocked me;
It startled me that Hārith had changed his ways.

11. After this saying, no more will I seek profit;
My profit is Hārith; to him my love clings!

12. I set her bolt straight to strike her mate;
He screamed while she undid bonds formed long since.

13. As though the Tīrās mount were honoring
Its whiteness while its blackness brought it shame.

14. You have our love and friendship constantly;
No interlopers come to us therein.

15. My loyalty’s market gained for spendthrift Wafā’
Whose paltry earnings all had gone amiss.

16. Whene’er you back me, three respond to you:
My words, my love, andSarahJī third of three!