1. Your passion is ruins etched in carnelian,
And your tears pour in those desolate dwellings.

2. My pact with them is the binding of my eyes,
And my mornings there were alluring and intimate.

3. The glances flirt with them though free,
As if their meanings wander and preen capriciously.

4. The longings delight in them though bitter,
And love in them tortures, for love is murderous.

5. They make musk and its spreading redundant,
With what they perfumed of robes and trains.

6. As if the nights swore their mishaps,
And truly they vowed: no state in them will endure!

7. So spend my tears, love of one departed and ruined,
And my heart is bereaved, yearning and poured out.

8. Where the torrent of anguish is a downpour of ruin,
And the crooked staff of the wet nurse bent and leaning.

9. I ransom every abode the acacia trees sprouted,
While my home sprouted nettles and straying beasts.

10. They hastened my ruin in the wilderness,
Hopes failed in their love and were confounded.

11. The knotted belt is loose at her waist, and her affection bends,
Swaying with the swaying branches, leaning aslant.

12. Pacts passed with her, and covenants,
And hopes were dashed in her love, and aspirations.

13. Who then can heal a heart tortured by eyes?
With those Babil eyes it is distraught.

14. Though her anklets tinkle and her belt rings,
She hid well her anklets, armbands and bangles.

15. I see her close yet our hearts are distant,
Why then am I not gathered in and embraced?

16. My friend, my malady of youth is refractory,
Is there any revering such an illness of youth?

17. When will time be gentle and allow us to unite,
And cease between us all this talk and bickering?

18. I repeat my gaze upon her face,
So her beauty grows though veiled.

19. I seek healing from her lips but fear
The honeyed draught, and the sips are perilous.

20. Oh the long night of parting at dawn’s breach!
Oh the fair morn of the cheek when the tent ridge darkened!

21. May God quench my tears, those slanderers strove,
So they slept as they slept, and said as they said,

22. Yet I saw none like me in passion or love,
Though humanity has its likes, counted and matched.

23. No witness like my tears in my youth,
Nor any match for Saif ad-Din among men, peerless.