1. My heart has been purified by ardent desire,
And I have surrendered my love to the will of my Lord.

2. I fought with the willful gazelles using my eyelashes,
But they would not accept my peace nor leave off warring against me.

3. When my heart blames my love-sick eyes,
They shift the blame for love back to my heart.

4. So do not wonder that the wind has shaken my shoulders,
And that my passion has left me bewildered and heedless of family and friends.

5. In the intoxication of youth you know this,
So how much more when it is combined with the intoxication of love?

6. I have a gazelle whose company is sweet as honey;
I have given myself to her and she reigns in my heart.

7. I became lovesick, though at first my heart was not thus,
For her, whose heart is silent though her eyes are eloquent.

8. When she sings the gazelles are put to shame,
And when she bends, the delicate branches bend with her.

9. I complained to her of the malady of love, and she complained of the same,
So I weep for her love, while she weeps for mine.

10. My friend, I have experienced love and come to know it,
And learned from it what is easy and what is hard.

11. Never did my soul know aught sweeter than meeting,
Or more tender to the heart than the moment of nearness.

12. It is sweeter than forgiveness, more delicious than consent
When it comes after estrangement and reproach.

13. I will indulge myself in the pleasures as far as I can reach,
And set the steeds of frivolity to galloping in an open plain.

14. For indeed my love of the successor to Joseph
Will atone before God for whatever sin I have committed.

15. The descendants of the Prophet’s helpers, his successors,
The heirs of the party of God—need I mention the party of Satan?

16. Greeted am I, as the sun is greeted in the beauty of morning,
And palms spread forth, as you described the clouds' palms spreading.

17. Victory attends him in every situation,
And his armies advance preceded by ranks of terror.

18. Through him God has brought unity after fragmentation;
By his hand the far-flung souls of humanity are at rest.

19. May he of the tranquil eyes continue in a life of ease
Whose sublime qualities scale the degrees of renown!

20. May his days and his times remain
As wonders reviving the empire of the Arabs!