1. I am absent yet still present in spirit through my loyalty,
While my path parts from yours though your memory lingers dear,

2. At dawn, between my ribs, remembrance of you burns
Like a flame, bringing tears raining from my eyes,

3. I call upon you though parted, with yearning doing its work,
A prayer rises above all salvation,

4. I console myself with your letters, though seldom
Can mere lines and words heal the wounds of separation,

5. One night apart has tested my patience,
So how can I endure many nights of separation?

6. How can I find patience when the light of your beauty is gone,
And no ray of light falls upon my eyes?

7. I was not one to squander resolve before,
But my resolve fails before the decree of destiny,

8. I bid you farewell though parting weighs heavy on my soul,
How can joy be sweet or life feel complete?

9. God willed that you deserve all merit,
Though my words may seem too bold,

10. For you have bestowed on me many subtle meanings,
That walk as your own meaning walks shackled,

11. If verse could weave all these together,
Their jewels would adorn all breasts and necks,

12. Eloquent poets would fall short beside them,
While Lithe poets and Jarir would aspire to reach them,

13. In anything but you, my words find fault,
While in any love but yours, falsity lurks,

14. Oh, would that I knew - will we meet again?
So time that wrongs may be set right?

15. Still, God's spirit and grace offer comfort,
For the turns of fate revolve full circle,

16. Lost hopes may be found, dreams fulfilled,
And after things, other things,

17. You have changed while days can be clear or gloomy,
And who is there that does not change?

18. You blamed one whose heart and words
Were filled with remembrance and thoughts of you,

19. Time has worn away the love you showed,
That flowed excessive, as if dripping,

20. God did not allow me to forget your brotherhood,
Not for a moment, though our lands lie far,

21. And how could one forget his beloved,
The thought of whose face fills my heart and eyes?

22. When your face leaves my sight, I find it in my mind’s eye,
So one image fades as another takes form,

23. I feared the misfortune of our parting,
And it has befallen me as I dreaded,

24. Would that the evil of being far from you had come first,
And the good of being near you had followed after,

25. Many were the days we spent together before,
But the days of separation have been more,

26. My passion grew in the long nights without you,
Though when you were near, they seemed to race by,

27. Your distance has deafened me though awe,
Yet the tongue of my state speaks of you,

28. In the folds of my heart, the embers of your memory burn,
While the breath of my words is perfumed with your name