1. Love's passion stirred in Abul Fadl and swelled
And every lover's malady grew worse

2. Al-Ashqar wept when love unveiled to him
Its secrets, borne by cares that never cease

3. And when he saw me waiting by the door
To ask when my laments would find release

4. And I, when I would come, kissed his cheek
My lips like grazing gazelles, soft and meek

5. Beneath me he would breathe and tears would spill
He’d sob - if only warring tribes made peace!

6. My liver, win your love, though she may cry
And tell her girlfriends what we seek to hide

7. For her I have a coat to soothe her heart
While she has left me but a ring inside

8. Of glancing eyes - her veil weeps while her skirt
From her abstains though ardor burns behind

9. When she would rise she leaned as if to aid
Her, till her handmaidens helped her to her feet

10. By God, I never thought her love a rose
Whose season ends when foreign buds compete

11. Rather, I found her love most like a myrrh
Whose lasting form suits my love's lasting beat

12. Mine are two eyes - one raining constant tears
The other forever stung by heartless heat

13. I torture my eyes with weeping, as though
I, their enemy, might wage war incomplete

14. Happy is he who naps an hour at night
And tastes some grief - for gentle is his sleep

15. I marveled that my eyes blamed my heart for love
Though the Throne's Lord arbitrates their defeat

16. When those two quarrel, their messenger to Him
Is a soft tongue that moans in pain's repeat

17. If love's complaint spoke through each hair on me
It would shame even the wise and the discrete

18. For my chest brims with every mortal woe -
No hair could trace the agonies I meet

19. She visits me in dreams, while my bed lacks
All but her phantom - empty ruins sheeted

20. In dreams I tried to kiss her, but she shunned me
And I regret what dreamt desires defeated

21. When dreams fulfill what men wish in their hearts
By God, dreams are but fancies incomplete!

22. When winds blow from her land into my face
I breathe them in until my throat is cleft

23. If you but tried one night awake in bed
You'd say: Happy is he who soundly slept!

24. Without you, I'd have never visited Hijaz,
Nor wed the best that Iraq's brides could bequeath

25. Our sins against each other swell in number -
By my father's life, of this I am bequeathed!

26. Bear patiently your beloved's gravest sin
And if you're wronged, just say it is you who seethed

27. For if you do not pardon love's offense
Your love will leave you and your pride will seethe