1. Naught but remembrance did this longing stir,
The phantom's visit crept from Cairo's sand,

2. After long estrangement and aloofness,
How many a sea and desert he traversed,

3. Roaming the night, comrade of disquietude,
Till he arrived dust-laden in the waste,

4. Having folded up the miles and faded,
As the new moon's sickle that doth waste,

5. Bearing each excellence as bears the hawk,
As though a firmly-fastened tent-peg were he,

6. Far from the goal of will and thought,
For glory striving, not for sordid gain,

7. So I urged on my camel short of journey's end
To remind me of time's prime, so fresh and fair,

8. Alas for him, his days and life
That were but a brief space in time's march.

9. When youth was mine, at the daybreak of desire,
And the goal of death was life's high noon

10. A fawn, fairer than moonlit nights,
Of distant hips and slender waist,

11. Lovelier than sun through rain-clouds' rift,
Bewitching minds as wine bemists,

12. Smiling, as pearls on necklace strung,
As were she liquid 'mid throat's beads,

13. When she sways, ere the stars grow dim,
She breathes like scent from flowers fresh-culled,

14. As if her mouth wereExtraction for perfume blent,
And if heavily she paces, dazed with pride,

15. She paces like the breeze o'er pools that glide,
You'd think it magic or a magic-like illusion,

16. A stagnant night 'neath traveling sun,
Two opposites which for one end combine,

17. O you who blame me, blame but stirs desire,
You've stirred my passions, and you do not know,

18. Not you, what in me burnt of love and thought,
When night allays my heart's unrest,

19. I keep vigil on every star that fleets,
As though my entrails were of live coals,

20. How can there be solace with time's caprice
Fretting my wounds and causing pain renewed,

21. As though it sought me with a tent-rope,
And patience, if you knew its bitterness,