1. I say goodnight to the long night in wonder
As tears have streamed from my eyes so I weep

2. By God, I know not, are her people unjust to me
Or was it I who was unjust to them

3. I sat still, sent no messenger, nor did they
Send aught to us, a neighbor who has sinned

4. Are you coming to Layla's people, watching
For my sin, were they aloof or just aloofness feigned

5. If I am at fault then such is their judgment of me
And for a man it suffices that he submit to judgment

6. But if it was Layla who sinned and sought pretext
To know my resolve, I walked proudly away

7. To her, but blamed not her life for my sin
I resigned my right if she attained remorse

8. So be a healer, healing a soul sick
For Layla, a heart full of wounds well known

9. For you will have, after bounty, yet more bounty from me
That has struck my heart, a hound that was faithful

10. Who yearned for Layla, though fate denied her
I did not climb the heights to her, nor tread her paths

11. Rather gently, kindly, she would have bid farewell
To fickleness in a twist, a lame man grown straight

12. Like embers in the grasp of one cupping them
When the wind blew, he held them firm, though hot

13. He built on ardor until they took heed of him
And protected him from people, took shelter in him

14. Then it sighed, though hearing he did not desist
Rather strode ahead and would not turn back

15. Not sorcery is this, but her gentleness
If it attains the complex, it unravels the knot