1. Alas, who yearns in the Hejaz, a stranger,
With much communing with cares, depressed,

2. With much night wakefulness, never ceasing,
Stern poetry passes by like a guardian.

3. It excites the doves in their sorrow,
And makes every neck bend to it.

4. Whenever the eastern wind blows, it never stops
Churning the passions above the flame.

5. I am the passionate lover, and my body bears witness,
My changes and my distress for how long!

6. My beloveds, formerly I was among you
Ignorant of my right to love and my share.

7. I yearned for you with longing, passion and torment,
So answer my wailing in my yearning!

8. And when longing melted my frozen tears
I said to my soul in youth: melt away!

9. Formerly I was the cross of resolve, before parting from you,
But after separation I am no longer a cross.

10. If some of my passions were to afflict me,
It would melt, melting like the corner of a candle.

11. My beloveds, my patience at being far from you
Has become, by my life, O how strange!

12. I have sighs that shattered my ribs,
And tears that moistened my eyelids.

13. Whenever my eyes watered my cheeks, they were fertile,
But every other place, barren and dry.

14. My heart is fertile from the rains of love,
But from rain showers otherwise, barren.

15. If only, with the birds, I could fly to you,
When no eastern wind takes me.

16. I ask the sun whenever it rises
Or sets, about you.

17. Had it not been for my dignity, my youth
Would have perished in love—nothing strange!

18. The greatest affliction if a lover is tried
Is the distance from the beloved.

19. From this distance, in my heart, my cheek, my eyes
Are wounds from passions—what wounds!

20. I exhausted my youth with you and have not stopped
Being burdened with you until my duties called.

21. I blame myself at dawn when I bade you farewell
For none earns grave sins but me.

22. I hope to replace what I got from passion
With wiping out sins and hiding faults.

23. And how many a lover, if he knew the love
I have for him in my heart, would be friends with me!

24. I consoled myself for the wind of youth and you
With Layla of my heart and the wind from the south.

25. I quenched my thirst, though the eyes were
Looking at me and I did not fear a guardian’s eye.

26. Everyone who loves the sublime in his pursuit
Endures dangers, no less windy.

27. I was passionate for Layla while youth was my gown,
Withered until it was no longer withered.

28. I wished I would meet her for an hour in that land,
And became near, and how near!

29. I was answered in prayer before my birth,
Through her union. And what answer!

30. She is the beautiful, flawless one, without adornment.
And whoever adopts her will have no doubts.

31. A horse—even if she threw off her clothes in public—
Would be rewarded, her caller, and what reward!

32. And none embraced her arms successfully
Except through the mercy of the Merciful.

33. She moves modestly through the lands,
Free in her life to all the noble.

34. When she is addressed her reply is a reward,
And none sought her hand but each suitor.

35. I walked humbly in her protection, and she deluded me
The morning we parted in farewell.

36. I sought her satisfaction through her, imploring
God that He may wipe away my sins.

37. And I embraced her arms, and my tears never ceased
To flow down my cheeks torrentially.

38. And I said, “My God, I am imploring You
Through Layla, perhaps You may pardon and forgive my sins.

39. For the vast plain has narrowed for me, because I have tried
A sin beyond endurance, however wide.”

40. So I ask You for success in what You approve,
My life, and forgiveness after my withering away.

41. For You are my refuge, and You I complain to,
You are my protector, my shelter, and my beloved!