1. My heart amid the churches
Is captive to passions and tremors

2. So direct it towards them for they are
Though unorthodox, the qiblah of my desires

3. And marry it off with the knots of ardour
To the flowery hills,

4. And take it, O lads of Aamir,
To the smooth maidens.

5. For in me is a Roman air
That sweeps between the churches,

6. I roam in it while love is misleading
Between bells and stalls.

7. And in the gazelles of the desert who would spurn
The urban does?

8. I converse on Easter day with them
Between the cloisters and convents.

9. And they came for it to a tryst
And gathered in it for the appointed time,

10. In a stance before a bishop
Holding a lantern and staff,

11. And every priest displaying piety
With signs of hearkening and humility,

12. While his eye roams in their eyes
Like a wolf coveting a flock of lambs.

13. And what man is safe from passion
Having seen those does?

14. Of moon-like cheeks
Upon cylidrical necks,

15. And they recited their scriptures
In sweet tones and voices

16. Increasing in their gang of stallions
My agony and the tightness of my bonds,

17. And the sun - the sun of beauty - among them
Under the clouds of veils,

18. While my glance steals its ray
And its ray kindles my passions,

19. And in love there is a fiery pain
I have hung since years,

20. That does not subside ever, and how often I cast it
Rather it flares up at all my times.

21. So awaken in me, O bent bough,
The sprightliness, though my greetings it spurns.