1. My longing stirred and my grief awoke
I complain of separation, and so does the distance between us

2. It has ravaged their features, the lengthy parting,
Just as parting has ravaged us

3. So let them walk freely, though far,
Competing with the wind across the hills

4. Why then should we not shelter them, they who
Across plain and mountain we traversed with

5. Did you find any but them a vessel?
If they utter no word of complaint to us

6. Still, by their writhing, they ache
My liver is galled by their groans

7. For the sorrowful pity the sorrowful
Had my tears been their torment, never

8. Would they wander parched, though water be seen
You have joined with them unjustly

9. So do justice, yield to the right
I pass by ruins whose signs have faded

10. As the days and years go by
My friends say "Can you see their traces?"

11. Yes, but I cannot see the encampments
Had their lands not grieved like we grieved

12. Parting would not have overwhelmed us thus
Whoever saw their litter yet glimpsed them

13. Looked, and could not part eyelid from eye
Each time a gleam caught my eye

14. It wept, revealing my secret anguish
Blame not my heart for my tormented state

15. Punish the traitor, not the true
The leaves did not conceal themselves in green

16. To verify what was raised on the branch
How often the bereft found comfort

17. In one who aided when help was gone
This is how she wept, and her companion was near

18. Imagine one whose companion is far
I swore the meadow, when it raised its borders

19. Pure and sweet basil
When its streams were sweet and its fruits appeared

20. And disclosed its treasures
Was neither finer, nor more blissful, nor truer

21. Nor sweeter to my eye
Than her stature, face, lips

22. And hair - so hear my avowal