1. You may blame me, though I have excuses,
That passion is a preordained fate.

2. I did not willingly surrender my well-being to the eyes,
Nor make light of the incident of love and its dignity.

3. It is a bird which my heart clings to and then abandons,
While my soul presses on with the caravans.

4. O heart, your condition is such that I will never aid you in passion
Nor call you to fall short.

5. My affair and your affair in passion are in the hands of passion—
If it were in my hands, I would break its fetters.

6. Keep close to youth and benefit from its neighborhood
Before grayness, which has no neighbor.

7. The life is loved in the days of youth
Like gardens are loved in March.

8. Never do I wish to part from the homelands—
Yet my wishes are for a gazelle with a wristlet.

9. Forbidden, except for perfect beauty,
Veiled, except from glances.

10. Her steps are pious, neither coquettish,
Nor walking with disdain.

11. She passed by us above the gulf, revealing
A paradise, while hiding a hell.

12. Among women who arouse in me a passion
At a glance, but do not glance for disclosure.

13. I encountered them, while between my heart and passion
There is a matter I try to conceal and avoid.