1. Greetings to loved ones, whom youth makes bloom
As pure, sweet musk’s first breath perfuming a room

2. Send rain so that their lives grow green and fair
Adorned in silk, bright clothes, gossamer wear

3. To me, night and dawn after them are the same
Among them, all gloom vanishes without shame

4. Their image is my lamp, their cheeks, my red flowers
Their eyes like Babylonian stars are my bowers

5. I asked lightning to carry my letter swift
To one long hoped for, though ever my hopes drift

6. It sped, mimicking my tears to fever’s heat
And told my eyes of lips like sweet berries, a treat

7. I lifted my eyes toward his cheek’s apricot
So he’d make me rich, but he said “Empty, begot”

8. Happy, unhappy, between hell and heaven I stay
Stripped of patience, clothed in illness’s decay

9. He left me a note written in ink the hue of musk
On a silver plate smooth as silk to the touch

10. My heart is a dwelling for loved ones to live in
And thoughts of them in the darkness my friend