1. Is it from you, at the time of union, I have the memory of wine?
How can that be when love is both manifest and hidden?

2. As for me, when I fall for a maiden,
I never forget her though people change.

3. Oh, if only the sons of Eve whom she bore
Would line up following my order, then I'd choose!

4. I'm tormented by someone who does me no justice,
Seeking to kill me while my Lord is my protector against him.

5. She captivated my heart, soft and pampered,
Like the full moon when it rises, white and fragrant.

6. A cheek gesturing coquettishly, her wrist hides it
A pearl and her forearm veils her face.

7. She captivated with an eye and a lip whose pearl she uncovered
So the eye makes sick and the lip enchants.

8. Oh, if only I had a cup forever in my hand
That her mouth had touched, so traces of her remain in it.

9. Good fortune to a garment of hers! I truly envy it
When it touches her and she fastens the garment's buttons.

10. I have never been called anything but I remember it
As if a fire has been kindled in my heart.

11. O you who ask about my passion to reveal it,
A lover's secrets are bound to show from him.

12. So listen to my whispers and look at my gaze,
If you still doubt what's in my breast.

13. As for her name, it's hidden, I have no permission,
By God's will, to reveal it to you.

14. It's as if my heart, since the day I was tried with her,
Is a bird between the sky and earth flying about.

15. Passion whose arrows God has not loosened!
Passion is harmful for God's servants indeed.

16. It commands me by evening a cheek made forbidden
From me, while between us are veils and curtains.

17. She is a gazelle, though if she knew
What's in me, she'd be stirred by yearning and memories.

18. Long has my standing at her abode's door lasted
Until it's as if I'm a nail driven in the door.

19. I prolong my standing though I expect no appearance from her,
I stand and to the doors I'm a watcher always.

20. I say to the abode, as long has my standing there lasted,
After weariness, and my tears flow copiously:

21. "O abode, do you understand speech about someone,
Or does speech not avail if he speaks profusely?"

22. "O abode, a gazelle inside you has captivated me!
God bless you—who you contain, O abode!"

23. I kept complaining to her about the love of its dweller
Until I saw the structure of the abode collapse.

24. Why should I visit people who don't know me
When none of their family knows me though I visit?

25. But if they accept my excuse, they've been fair
In their judgment, and if they refuse, they've done wrong.

26. They said they'd travel but they neither left nor stayed
Nor were distances too great for them across the desert.

27. They have no relief being near their abode,
Nor news of them when we're far away.

28. When those whom my heart craved journey away,
I don't care whether the living stay or leave.