1. O you whose nature is perfect
Exalted in virtues and merits

2. With glorious qualities that dazzle minds
And astound even the wise

3. Yet you shun me though you're among
The gentlest people I've known

4. Each new day that comes to pass
Brings you nearer, then farther from your companion

5. It honors me to see that after we meet
I find you again embracing me as a writer

6. How excellent is our affinity
Though between us stand speakers and suitors

7. With intimates, strangers,
Foreigners and Arabs

8. And cherished intimacies
Veils and curtains

9. You welcomed me as one would
A family member with strange marvels

10. Forms of magic beauty
That capture hearts like molds

11. When they look, they captivate
Souls and take them prisoner

12. Their glances are desirous
Their brows austere

13. Guarded by eyelids
Teeth and braids

14. With processions of blushing clouds
And stars

15. You’ve given them the honor of fathers
Making them suited and appropriate

16. So people are either denying
Or criticizing and blaming

17. And the cup of death circulates
Among them, which I too must drink

18. If I’m ever absent
When they are martyred one day

19. O you whose affection I constantly
Seek, and who seeks mine

20. Trust me, even if the days
Take us far, your due right remains obligatory

21. Indeed you believed my affection true
While others' affection was false

22. You exemplified kindness, though
Loved ones and kin turned away

23. Though distance compelled me
I persisted in my love for you

24. Our past bonds remind me
Of lightning and clouds

25. And doves that perched
Atop branches chirping

26. Those times when passion flourished
And petals opened

27. With the soul adorned on both sides
By flowers and branches

28. My descriptions of beauty are not
What the reproacher supposes

29. But I remembered you with goodness
And so recalled only the finest things

30. As if your nature is gentleness
Perfectly matched to their delicacy

31. But time in its ups and downs
Brings me many wonders

32. Giving and taking back gifts
So it is a subtracting donor

33. Leave these offerings, for the sincerity
Of their measurement is deficiency

34. I have advised, and though advice
Meets acceptance and rejection

35. Be patient with the souls' medicine
For souls have different doctrines

36. Fate toyed with us all
Leaving just a few at play

37. How many ornaments I've lost
That I grasped and wrestled over

38. How many fruits of the time
I savored and drank

39. No pleasure remains
Unmarred by blemishes

40. I tasked myself with yearning
Now here I am, a monk

41. Among the wonders is that you disappear
Though your path was not one of love

42. But my appointment is fixed therein
While my tryst departs

43. With fortune raising the exalted
And debasing the debased

44. Thus Imru’ al-Qays wanders
While Zayd is the striker

45. No - by Him whose decree
Made the raven croak

46. Without you I have no choice
The irresistible decree prevails