1. Desire is baffled, abandoned, forlorn;
Its infatuation deluded and vain;

2. It came seeking as if a fawn of the gazelle,
Most shy, most afraid, shunning all people.

3. Babylonian of glance, fortress of languor,
On it musk-scented sheets for cover;

4. Of figure like the fresh slender bough,
Young verdure, soft, delicate.

5. And brow as if it were son to intelligence
When freed from the veil of his face's light;

6. He sips the water of coquetry wantonly -
So entrance to union with him is blocked.

7. Whene'er the rule of a boy's caprice
Governs him, he is stubborn in his rule; and who

8. Is stubborn will be tyrannical.
I said, when I saw him absent from me

9. An hour - or months, nay eons:
"Where did you incline, leaving, O delight of the soul?

10. Since you went the appointed time has ceased."
He said to me, as shame dyed his cheek

11. And those lines almost became obscured:
"If I absent myself from your dark-lashed eye,

12. Within your heart I wander to and fro.
Is this love's rule over your yielding heart -

13. A rule of separation full of gaps?
Or has the wickedness of my glance permitted me,