1. Cherish the hours as they pass by, no matter how
Your worries accumulate, and lean on its window,

2. And imagine a garden from an emerald heaven,
Where the stars of flowers shone out from their orbits.

3. A stream flows through it, like the Milky Way,
Its pebbles like pearls in their strands.

4. The breezes wove for it garments of gossamer,
That bewilder the eyes in beholding them.

5. And the breeze alighted in its courtyards, as a bird alights
Prolonging its song above its nest.

6. Between monks like hermits of a monastery
Who have recited the Bible in their cells,

7. And the singing of a nightingale, the rhymes of a dove,
And the chant of one enamored of his cage,

8. And the murmur of a river whose silver waters
Flowed through the midst of its sands.

9. One who saw its banks, if the bubbles’ dance
Had made the Euphrates jealous amidst its rocks.

10. Its regions were filled with the power of its rage,
Until it fixed its place of stillness.

11. They drink coffee there in the evenings,
Like the monk’s hood, far from its convent.

12. From the hand of a beauty, no matter how much she sings,
Who captivates hearts, then casts them back into captivity.

13. Name it the meadow of glances, then chase it away, not
From its rose, and beware of holding onto it!

14. How often it has relieved me of sorrow and my company -
A scholar versed in religious sciences, obedient to their laws.

15. From it the days derived a joy
And freshness that lingered long after its loss.

16. Heaven sent dust that buried
That knowledge, leaving the crescent of its new moon obscured.

17. And the gifts of the Lord began every evening
To come to him through the hands of His angels.