1. Even though I yearn for an ascetic's affection
And seek closeness to his abode though far removed,

2. Why must I keep faith with one who's left?
Why must I accept rebuke from an ungrateful soul?

3. Why occupy my thoughts with one asleep,
While I remain awake with eyes that weep?

4. Why school myself to please a criminal?
Whose love the seeker of affection spurned,

5. And say his shunning comes from fear of slander,
That lures but warns us of an envier's spite,

6. I think his coldness comes of necessity,
As if estrangement were his conscious plight.

7. Who can obtain sincere affection
That the critic's test cannot expose?

8. I'll settle for its falsehood and be content
With hopes it feeds though they're not true.

9. O you whose absence wore away my patience
And stripped my cloak of strength and fortitude!

10. What path is there to union after you
Have barred the roads that led to my pursuit?

11. Yet fools blame me for bearing your injustice,
Whose hearts are chilled towards my agony.

12. They ridicule my sorrow with blessed calm,
And block my tears with stony eyes that freeze.

13. Why can you not be softened by a glance
Whose fires your desertion lit ablaze?

14. And by a soul whom passion's ghosts dismay
With wounded heart and ears that disobey?

15. Who tosses sleepless as if lions clawed
Beneath his pillow with their dreadful jaws.

16. Does reproach affect you? Rarely does rebuke
Turn back the will of one whose heart's astray.

17. Hope of your union at day's fading edge
Is farther than the stars that light night's shade.

18. To seek true love from one whose heart is rot
Is weary toil that naught can ever sway.