1. Her thoughts conceived it, and her charm displayed it,
What the night concealed not, nor did dawn deride it,

2. No fault of dawn, a sun no eye hath seen,
And night the excuse, unsplit musk serene,

3. With heart-ache not in her heart that lingers,
Nor, for her tattoo, anxiety that lingers,

4. If she turns her neck in its branches,
Therein the meaning of the rod in the leaves is shown,

5. And a gesture have I with no gesture,
A hand, in lifelong weeping and wakefulness shown,

6. Were it not for fantasies of the darkness,
I had ne’er preferred the violet tints of night to the rose of dusk

7. O ye sleepers, and those that sleep after them,
The most pungent of sorrows claims a surreptitious sleep,

8. Ye have marred my sleep and stole my eyelids,
And only he cuts rightfully who steals,

9. I have doffed the raiment of sickness for your love,
And it is customary that raiment the creation doffs,

10. Who will say to me at dawn words
Of an insomniac whose hope was the perfume of eve?

11. Had I remained true to an unfaithful companion
I had followed my heart whither it sped,

12. Is it a smiling mouth amid the darkness,
Or lightning that flashed, or naked blade,

13. Or well-aimed arrow that sped?
Kindle the sparks of greeting, for its fire

14. Is the outpouring of tears, and its water the sparks of
When an ember glows amid the darkness,

15. With it did yearning stir, and longing beat time,
Explain to me the inspiration of love and its flash,

16. For the matter is that a mouth speaks though it spake not,
O rider whose camel floats

17. On the surge of waves when waves burst forth!
Tell of her who led me to meadows

18. None save she had led me to after noon,
Convey—didst reach—my sufferings to her of radiant cheeks,

19. Sickener of eyelids, sweet embrace,
My love—no jostling can shake it—

20. Watches for motes amid no guile,
A gazelle, its eyelids my sanctuary,

21. And oft the gazelle is hunted with decoys,
Far be it that to a heart in love

22. Cleaves fault of a gazer wherein is sin,
Then stop in this place if for me thou stood,

23. By absolute beauty tomorrow shackled gaze,
And say to him that separation is a stance

24. Had it not been for sincere religion, ne’er were there hardship and rending.