1. The lightning flashed Egyptian, keeping me awake alone,
And reminding me of what I have not forgotten from the past.

2. So, O truthful lightning, tell me
About my family and companions - what did they do after me?

3. And about the garden of Al-Miqsas, through which run
Rivulets shaded by clouds with their rain.

4. When the wind blows gently upon it,
Its buds curl up like braided hair.

5. And when the sun smiles upon it, it blossoms as if
Unsheathed swords for fencing were drawn from their scabbards.

6. For a time I enjoyed it, but not every delight
Has the days make you love except to loss.

7. So alas! Regret is fruitless
For what time has buried of our pleasant life.

8. For time is forgiving and the nights are hearing,
And the appointed tryst - the eyes have not failed my promise.

9. A maiden who shows you the sun beneath her veil
When she travels, and the branch in the knot of her belt.

10. One of the languid beauties - if her shadow
Fell upon a worshipper, the surah of ardor would pulse within him.

11. By God, I will forget her covenant as long as
The daughters of dawn twitter between branches and trellises.

12. I swear by her life the veil has hidden
And by the lineage the gown has contained.

13. By the strung pearls between the breast-bones -
It is honey, nay sweeter than honey!

14. A solemn oath - if you used it to request rain from the land
The shepherds would wade through fresh herbage.

15. You, whoever you are, are a beloved
To me, even if you torment my heart with aloofness.

16. For you I robbed sleep’s eye of bliss
And for you I shepherded the star in its horizon, alone.

17. I tamed this soul after its refusal,
And were it not for you, it would agree to neither tie nor bond.

18. So for sure you repay my love with coldness -
Do you not fear God regarding the sanctity of glory?

19. Ask the long night about me, for it
Knows what I conceal in yearning and what I divulge.

20. Have my eyes lined with anything but tears
Whenever the soul mentions you, streaming down my cheek?

21. I restrain the soul from you though it is unwilling -
Alas! The thirsty are hardly patient from attaining the stream.

22. As if I meet from your love the son of Khisa,
A brother of the ferocious who cannot be deterred by refusal.

23. He missed his target and lost his prey,
So he snarls in anger from hunger and toil.

24. He has howls in the wilderness as if they are
Thunderclaps against the homes of enemies.

25. He tears the curtains of darkness with eyes
That shoot sparks like flint stones.

26. As if they are two cressets rotated
Towards the sun, erupting with flames of fuel.

27. This is what your aloofness from me has thrown
Onto the embers, my composure and restraint, O daughter of the people, or strengthen them!