1. Be still, O stirrings of longing, in my heart,
For you shall not regain what is past.

2. Alas! Never shall it return, even if
I spent my life burning with passion and torment.

3. Alas! Never shall it return, even if
I melted my heart into a flood of tears.

4. Be still now, O your violent, overwhelming surge
That shakes my ribs violently.

5. Have mercy, O stirrings of longing, if I called out
My past, I would not find one listening.

6. The heart drew down over it a thousand veils
And tears like them, pouring ceaselessly.

7. Have mercy, O stirrings of longing, if I tried
To resurrect passion, I would not be able.

8. How can a withered flower in a vase
Grasp at life with frail hands?

9. Have mercy, O stirrings of longing, for the heart
Can no longer wrest itself free afterwards.

10. If you loved him, then let him be,
Content and pacified with the past.

11. Let him forget yesterday or be consoled, and come,
Kneel in silence around him reverently,

12. Or make him dream of flowers, music, wine and candles
Flickering around a bride.

13. O oft returning visitor, how excellent
Your courtesy to the shrine has been!

14. I see nothing in the features of your face
Except a sad ghost, a dream long lost.

15. My eyes behold you as though
In you I meet all the pains of my life.

16. Long has my night been, yet I have folded up
No part of it except you unfold it again.

17. O longing, leave me be, depart from me,
Neither deceiving nor deceived.

18. Where is that beauty I nurtured like lightning
In the dark, and unveiled dazzlingly?

19. Where is that vision I gave to drink from a cup
In his hand which made fountains gush?

20. Where? Nowhere! What use is remembering to me
When recollection itself is forbidden?

21. You have returned, O longing, and your nights with you,
But you found a lifeless heart.

22. You returned after torment that seared it
And left it withered on the embers.

23. And nights of desolate solitude
That pelted it with frozen snow.

24. You returned, O longing! Why did you return?
The spring of life has passed! Can you restore spring?