1. Long has been my wait, and my tryst has passed
While you, like me, await the evening

2. How much sway you have over my passion
My flowers, you are the emblem of loyalty

3. My flowers, do not tire
And let not time unsettle you

4. Do not droop, smile, and be cheerful
For soon the visitor shall come

5. Soon you will meet him
The most beautiful your eyes aspire to

6. He will knock on my door declaring
That for his love all waiting seems trivial

7. I say: Did his steps tarry?
Or did he, perhaps, miss his promised time?

8. Or, lost in his revelry
Did the quarters of the living mislead him before he tread them?

9. Make excuses like me, and say: perhaps!
Or do you not know the secret of passion?

10. You are but the smile of hope
Should silence descend and darkness prevail

11. How many sisters you have who shared with me
The dawn of a wonderful meeting

12. And how many evenings in which they conversed with me
And spent awake with me as fellow night vigilants!

13. How beautiful they were, those flowers
Who thought my eyelids heavy with sleep

14. They touched my forehead, confused
As if to rouse me from slumber

15. Awake, their petals fluttered
Now on my mouth, now my hands

16. As if my longings were their longings
Or they were the keepers of the tryst!

17. The place was empty of all, my flowers
And the moonlight had left the balcony

18. One night, two? What passed?
Stay with me until dawn breaks

19. I asked you for love and the pledge of loyalty
My flowers, do not weary of remaining

20. Still I harbor hope for the meeting
Though the day has passed and evening descended

21. Behind the glass door, a specter glided
Drawing near my door from the stairway

22. My heart pattered for it and pictured
Naught but the phantom of an obscure arm

23. I crane my hearing toward it, though sight belies me
Alas! It did not appear but disappeared

24. Like a fleeting dream
And how many footsteps I felt in my blood

25. I say: he came and these are his very steps
I listen and count the treads on the stairs

26. But he moves on, his echo fading away
My flowers, how much we have talked

27. Of a tryst one night or day
All around us marvel

28. Have we not tired of this endless wait?
I implored you for love, and if you prefer

29. Renew the clasp in my retreat
Then forget the trysts of passion, and remember

30. What lover in love has not been deceived!