1. No, by the Prophet Muhammad and by the noblest
Spouse of the immaculate, most splendid virgin maid.

2. By the right of the companions, the best of all mankind,
My heart has not been at peace since I left my friends.

3. Whenever I remember them - I'll never forget them -
My ribs bend over the fires for their sake.

4. When separation's claws tear at my sides,
I have no recourse but crying my eyes out.

5. My eyes rain tears down other eyes
At parting from them, so I'm drowned in tears.

6. I entrusted you my heart when I bade you farewell
And the heart of the captive, the lost one, in safekeeping.

7. I hoped for loyalty from you, though there is no hope
Of gain in pleasing or in appeasing the obstinate.

8. When I hoped for your true affection at daybreak
I was chasing a mirage, an elusive phantom.

9. You are still as I knew you, though you failed
My hopes of your love, by such callous neglect.

10. You slept, leaving tortured by passion in love,
And pierced me with painful, tormenting separation.

11. How often I hoped my darling's phantom would visit
While I lay awake - how can a phantom pay calls?

12. Traveler, if you pass by them, convey
Greetings from me to Damascus - I do not camp there.

13. Give my special friends my warmest greetings,
Sweet as the scent of ambergris, moist and dripping.

14. Faring well without me, lovely their sojourn,
While I struggle on in this arduous, grueling exile.

15. My enviers' eyes are delighted we're parted,
Though often they sneeze with their broken noses.

16. I tended their love and kept it secure,
Though now my tether is cut and the compact's dissolved.

17. Their ghosts are before my eyes, their image in my mind,
Their voices in my hearing, such my plight.

18. My patience is spent, my stratagems are few,
No place remains in my quiver from which to shoot.