1. What fault lies with our masters, men of loyalty,
If they were to send a ghostly visit in secrecy,

2. Lurking to evade the guards until inattentive they be,
Making our union's obstacle a night of unwariness.

3. If the furtive visit succeeds,
It comes to our tryst gently and politely,

4. Making, before its arrival, my cheek
A rug for its shoes and wrap.

5. My heart would be its lodging,
Their lives having shunned others' love.

6. A guest whose honor lies in staying with me
A liver seared by separation in the embers of abandonment.

7. O Saad! You being the herald of its arrival-
You have come at an excellent, loyal time.

8. If I were to sacrifice my soul for you
And find him to have fallen short, it would not be fair.

9. And you, Saad, would aid the one
Who, having been distanced from his beloved, is barely surviving.

10. Of the days of separation and estrangement that
Were created to torture lovers, none remains

11. Except its morning and a body that has become
Cast off like old cloth, beyond mending.

12. The sighs of my heart are embers that
Ignited tears from my eyes pouring down.

13. With eyelids of one worn by wakefulness who
Expelled the specters that came wandering.

14. Is there any sleep for the afflicted one,
Let alone repeated sleep or even a nap?

15. No sooner does the lightning of weapons shine
Than the soul overflows from it, lamenting.

16. I see it a sharp sword amidst the darkness
Doing snakes’ work or a shooting star extinguished.

17. My sighs mimic its thunder and winds
And its affliction mimics my gushing tears.

18. And when the agate and its people were mentioned
The agate wept and yearned profusely.

19. O people of Taybah, why have you not taken pity
On a youth who will greet you covered in dust?

20. Combine not estrangement and your distance from me
Estrangement is punishment enough, so enough!

21. I knew nothing before falling in love;
My love for you was never pretense.

22. What is wrong with them, o companion, that they forgot
A miserable youth madly in love?

23. It was said: that prisoner of ours and our slain one
Is stuck between allies and enemies.

24. My heart is your prisoner, while my body
Is jailed by enemies, tortured and shackled.

25. Far be it from your kind thoughts of me
To insult the agitating enemy!

26. How often the censurer has blamed me for loving you,
Prolonging his rebuke, advising and scolding me.

27. He has tried to turn my affection away
From your kindred spirit, but to no avail.

28. He wishes I would give up your love
So I could have time for myself and be fair.

29. As you know, the heart of the smitten
Does not recoil from loving you out of fear.

30. It seeks union even if it perishes,
And relishes tribulation unto annihilation.

31. It proceeds even if darkness is its equipment,
And journeys on even if the bare desert is its terrain.