1. The specter glided from the darkness, and the specter sent
So it greeted as if it hurriedly bade farewell

2. The specter sailed softly, and the fragrance held back its robes
With which it ignites from the glowing embers of India, a firebrand

3. And how did it find its way when the night was dark, and its eye
Was a guardian while my eyes had no kohl

4. It approached longing, and turned away forward
And how many turned away from a need while he came forward

5. My friend, if only a stop to stick to the cheek
On sand dunes and we huddled on sand

6. Is there a spring to quench the thirst of the cheek's yearner
For the sick heart that does not heal and gushes forth

7. Nothing remained in me for the specter and my riding camel
If the specter missed except the trails of absence hindered

8. My friend, though the innocent strayed
He is like a sword that tears apart and shreds

9. There is no flaw in him, if I looked and his eye
Except the glance is sweet to me for him, and he is cross-eyed

10. Nor is that a defect in him even if it were
For the crescent moons have waned from where they reached their fullness

11. And how much is for me a night, and a night for my companion
Both are long, except that my night is longer

12. And the other companion, though great is his status
Does not precede in love, and my love was first

13. When a kiss craved, a feverous lip
The kissing spot was struck with fever by the kisser

14. Or the brutish night stumbled with madness
Swaying with it, richness, protecting the kindled

15. It goes astray in the darkness of curled hair, and the dawn is clear
And it loses its way in the dawn of a cheek, and the night is dark

16. A gazelle, crescent of the horizon, his cheek a boat
But it has the water of salinity as its stream

17. From it he signals to us, if he was shy with fever
He watches the stolen from the deer, blue

18. We doubted, was it the water of wine or the wine of his saliva
And his chain of saliva, or is the saliva a chain

19. Return the look of the one wearing kohl, my friend, toward us
As the look of the hunter, and the jug taken unawares

20. And I have a look that inclines toward you
That insists like the most loyal bird of prey

21. So O you who descended to the land of loftiness, your love
And if you built in the heart a quarter and lodging

22. My loved ones, if the pilgrimage place was too far, you are
To remoteness in my eye and heart, likened

23. I love you with the longing of the complaining for his money
Resident upon a love that is generous at times, and stingy at others

24. And I yearn for you with the yearning of one with a broken wing
Who flails unable to plunge or join

25. I reached you only with shoulders for your destruction
And left you only with a shredded, torn robe

26. And how can one who did not make your love a faith
Upon the enmity of an illness, ever toss and turn

27. If you were not gentle, then be gentle
And if you were not beautiful, then be beautiful

28. And how many said this dark-skinned one is a poet
And where is there exquisite poetry from the dark-skinned one

29. And he is not but like one who came after him
Depending on those before him while he is dark-skinned too

30. By my father's life, if a void was closed in poetry
It is by a lad, Fuzayl or I, not the sifter

31. And Ibn Hajar visited in it a lofty meaning
As the eloquent wording roared and rumbled

32. So speak words that please the pleased, and rise high
And leave words that clarify for the clarified and descend low

33. That the young man is one who makes his words his deeds
And the young man is not one who says "I do" while he does not

34. I restrain the soul's rein short of you in despair
Then the beauty of hope returns me so I come forward

35. If the person never has a relied upon day
Then there is nothing left but the beauty of hope relied upon