1. Where we were before in our dreams
I drank purity from affection, I sat

2. And on your face during your absence
From the nectar of love and affection I drank

3. Do not ask me about past nights
I am more ignorant of them than knowing

4. Every day without love passes
If only I knew I was in love

5. The questioner asks who you are, even if
I were granted all of life I would not answer

6. I am the one who found you yet hates you
Oh the cup that gave me drink made me angry

7. Do not blame me for my passion for you
If I let go of patience one day I would not find

8. A poet pouring with the beauty of one sleeping
And with passion for it I stayed up

9. Fifty years of my life passed in vain
In a love that was the harshest I have dressed

10. There was a stormy love in Paris
With passion from it with fire I was seared

11. And the love of Layla in Baghdad I loved
From its embers the fire I desired

12. Layla is a gift of my refinement
Where is my Layla, for I am ignorant

13. Baghdad took all of my heart
With the black eyes, oh my heart you took

14. If Majnun saw one day my fervor
He would know I am a lover who is reasonable

15. And al-Shabbi would see me sober
I with sobriety from love blasphemed

16. Or if he knows who wrongs me
That if I wished with poetry I oppressed

17. What remains if I leave you
And with gentleness of spirit I pardoned you