1. I estranged love however much estrangement,
And I was chaste from wine and music.

2. If only drunkenness from her union left me,
However much drunkenness from a cup of sorrow.

3. And death's daughters began to afflict me
Gently, and they practiced their sorcery on me.

4. When she came she did not remove her roses
From my heart, neither veils nor curtains.

5. It was as if she had embers in my breast
And for each limb of mine she had a live coal.

6. If she does not rest in the evening at all
Then her furthest appointment is tomorrow morning.

7. She has power over people's bodies,
God has endowed her with power.

8. She has stolen my greatest weakness
And left no drop of my blood.

9. I pretended with the name of another but her -
As if I had no knowledge of her name.

10. So at times I call her hotly passionate
And at times I call her cold and indifferent.

11. And my manners have led to harshness after her
And her familiarity has bequeathed me disgruntlement.

12. The servant, if he is rude to me, has a slap
And sadness, if it wearies me, has a rebuke.

13. I ask my family about my leanness
And I get from them a glance, just a glance.

14. So I panic if I am told 'redness'
And I fear if I am told 'yellowness'.

15. And if I am hungry for a day, I become
As if there were a blade upon my liver.

16. And my spleen swells when I fill up,
So the bowels and chest are raised up.

17. And so I become as if my clothes
Were upon my shoulders from my stomach.

18. When I see a divorced man
Who can eat freely, tears choke me.

19. And they said my cure was in a diet
That would return my blossoming to me.

20. It was as if in my house I was made fertile
With an infertile, barren tract of land.