1. My eyes are restless with yearning
And night hurries away, wing on wing.

2. It seems dawn is a gate for night
That has no fear the morning will burst open.

3. The stars kindle sparks in my eyes
And longing sets the heart ablaze.

4. Ask not how those smitten with love fare,
O son of my beloved, that state cannot be described.

5. I do not complain of my eyes' war with me, nor the tears.
There has never been peace between us.

6. The state of lovers is but this:
What use are clouds that give no rain?

7. O days of my youth that are gone,
Can we go back? Can life expand?

8. The home of passion has lost its allure,
Though once I sported and roamed there.

9. When gazelles of the dunes were my concern
And for my heart a balm and a wound.

10. Any life without a fair face has no savor,
Like food without salt, however good.

11. Only the family of Tilal can cure me,
Most of all she who is bent like Tilal grass.

12. The day our caravan met another caravan
And longing found ease in their presence?

13. I did not blame the horse for the horse,
Our meeting and the miles were blessings.

14. You drew near yet not mouth to mouth,
We embraced but cheek touched cheek.

15. The meadows have savored your breath from my mouth
Its perfume clings there even now.

16. We pledged over wine cups
That I would count life nothing without you.

17. Can those who reproach me suppose
That after you I found life sweet?

18. My heart bore an old wound
And my gray hairs another sorrow.

19. How I treat my heart! I said.
Each cure makes the wound bleed more.

20. How often I pray with none to hear!
It's as if when I pray I'm mute.

21. I complain to the indifferent wind
Like a fledgling that never knew its mother.

22. He whom fear keeps awake
Sleeps today in the shade of swords.

23. Son of one whose sword's drippings
Need only touch the nape to kill.

24. No sooner born than from their blood
His children learn terror's chill.

25. If they kiss, they are lifeless corpses.
Had that word been in jest!

26. A hero, had he willed to tear through night's veil
Could have pierced it with the morning's lance.

27. How many lines by the canal he writes
And how many by the sword he erases!

28. With what can I ransom my prince
True of spearcast, stout of heart, generous?

29. All said in his favor, softly or loudly,
Is right and just.

30. O bride of horse and sword, his battle
Makes the steeds and heroes quake.

31. O mill of havoc and the horses whose hooves
Pound the vale of death where warriors lie strewn!

32. He lowered his sword of munificence to my luck-
Though it, like fate, frowned and frowned.

33. Good fortune glimpsed me and glanced away.
Had I been a star of auspiciousness, it would have beamed.

34. Alas for the tyranny of Time! Had I watered it
The sun would not have withered.

35. They flattered and dubbed exile
A free man's honor, not his death.

36. So they blamed and dubbed me a nitwit warbling
Mad songs to Ali's glory.

37. With a face like falling hail or
Scraping wind-driven clouds.

38. I was created effortlessly, as you see,
Not as one who follows another's lead.

39. Every verse in the empyrean
I have set with fine pearl and ruby.

40. Speaking for me the merit that, were it rivaled,
The rival would win but a breath.