1. Who will protect me from a heart that flares
Whenever the Yemeni lightning flashes?

2. Were it not for my tears extinguishing it,
My anguish would have consumed it in the flames it kindled.

3. The heart knows the hand of the eye controls it -
Indeed, the eye holds sway over the heart.

4. I spend the night sleepless,
Watching the stars traverse the boundless sky.

5. The long night of ecstasy seemed endless
Until it was granted eternity.

6. Yet they did not endeavor to walk the path of righteousness -
By my life, they never endeavored to walk the righteous path.

7. I have a beloved against whom I have thrown myself in passion -
He has inflicted upon me such wounds as an enemy would cause.

8. The night visitor seeks nothing but to ignite
Suffering that rises up, and patience that sits still.

9. My shooter missed not the mark when he struck my heart -
He intended it in his love, he meant no misstep.

10. O you who blame passionate love, passion itself
Has revolted against your judgment and transgressed your bounds.

11. Constant tears that never cease
Flow from fear of slanderers while anguish lies dormant within.

12. Can you see, the day our loved ones left,
The agony and desolation they felt?

13. After they left, we stood in the place they dwelled
Our tears flowed until they were depleted.

14. Then when our tears on the ruins of that abode were spent
We wept blood, our skin itself weeping.