1. Peace to the one I do not name, indeed,
I shall fold his name from me to the end of time

2. Peace I give in loyalty to the departed,
As I place fresh blossoms on the grave

3. Are you turning away? You are that tragedy
Exceeding what I wasted in love of my life

4. Years have passed, playfully, as though
Vistas of wishes between the wine and flowers

5. Oh, are you turning away? Ah, the burning longing
That fans the estrangement into embers upon embers

6. I shall be patient, but how can I soothe
Every anguish with patience that itself tortures?

7. Did we fall into conflict, for God brought temptation
In which time took pleasure without our knowing

8. I try forgetting what was between us
Yet forgetting turns into a kind of remembering

9. Whenever Alexandria’s apparition fills my thoughts
I recall what was between you and I

10. That summer did not ripen, dispensing intimately
On its shores, where magic pearls were strung

11. Your aloofness, Alexandria’s sand, drew me back
To asceticism from the magic of eyes and verse

12. Does your beauty avoid me because I reside
In a house below which the sea crashes?

13. The nights of passion once obediently led you
To the house in new Cairo for capturing

14. The nights of passion once were, if only they
Had remained in their entirety without dawn

15. The feast has passed with me knowing it only
As news of people—what feast while plaints fill my chest?

16. What beautiful feast when you are my adversary
An adversity like kohl lining the full moon?

17. I love you out of pity for you, so if you betray
My heart, when you wish, is harder than rock

18. If you do not recognize the beauty of what has passed
Between us, beware what estrangement you will reject

19. You will find remnants of your nights weeping
Lonely when your image fades out of my thoughts

20. I awoke and some waking is death—would that
I had sealed my life in love of you with sweetness

21. My heart awoke—where is my heart? Indeed, I fear
No heart remains to guide my affairs

22. We awoke together—so go without return
Or if you wish, come back, I hope for pardon in forgiving

23. The defiance of your youth is praiseworthy
Even if in its mirror my ruin multiplies

24. Did we awaken? Do not believe, for between us
Are pacts we forged from deceit and betrayal

25. You went north—will you know that I will go
Right to forcibly bring you close?

26. My right hand brings destruction—submit and let me
Discipline you, O soul, unjust and unaware!

27. Apparitions of beauty tempt my thoughts
To capture what you alone claimed of my being

28. And I fear they may prevail and win victory
If this injustice of aloofness and estrangement persists

29. Come protect my heart from invading armies
Armored with charm, kindness and magic

30. Come save me or let me be to see the outcome
Of what this love dares to approach in my affairs

31. My imagination casts nonsense to entertain
My spirit as embers are pelted with twigs

32. And the jest of passion is serious indeed—so do not
Mock me with time and abet my misfortune

33. Shall I keep my vigil alone with my heart raging
While you indulge in the charm of sweet intoxication?

34. Yes, this is the way of the world
And your heart is like the world—molded from betrayal

35. Did you not see that whenever I visit your house
I bestow on it a gaze woven of splendor?

36. I expected what we have come to, and who finds
Affliction like mine by you would have clouds of mystery lifted

37. Passion shows me what people do not see, and passion
Trains its followers in comprehending evil

38. I have blasphemed against this creation, eternally,
And has faith beheld more beautiful blasphemy than mine?