1. Where are our nights in the valley of passion?
Those were times I wish had not passed.

2. With them, I was content with my life,
Until when they were gone, I lost all contentment.

3. Days of play and youth, whenever
I remember them, space feels too confining.

4. Oh, what a fate with its rulings!
It wronged us and decreed what it decreed.

5. What pleasure of youth was temporary,
What garment of bliss was stripped away!

6. It whitened the blackness of my hair -
If only it had blackened what it whitened!

7. A time like a specter that visited, then when
Dawn shone from my graying, it departed.

8. It was but a breeze that blew past,
A cloud that gathered and lightning that flashed.

9. It passed and left behind only sorrow,
Among the sands like a sharpened sword.

10. Were it not for passion, the haunt of desire,
The embers of passion would not have kindled in my heart.

11. I commend to God that slender, delicate one
Who tortured me with aloofness, even hostility.

12. Upright in stature with a glance
That taught the glance of the gazelle.

13. A wild deer, since his sun set
From my sight in the distance, he has not blinked.

14. I was gladdened when he came nearer,
And saddened when he left, turning away.

15. He burdened me with a torment, that if
Time itself took it on, it would buckle.

16. He has seized sleep and will not return it
And stolen my heart and will not compensate.

17. Why did he delay in keeping his promise?
Should not a debt be repaid when due?

18. I took him to court before the king of love,
But he denied my rights and judged wrongly.

19. So to whom can I complain when he has
Wronged me, and the wrong of wrong demands redress?

20. By God, were it not for fear of his abandonment,
My heart would not have spent the night troubled and provoked.

21. Yet I have a will that gives me strength
And prevents me from being shaken in distress.

22. And I am not one, if disaster should strike,
To let go the reins or resign them away.

23. Rather I plunge into the fray undaunted
And cleave the adversary when he dares oppose.

24. I sip the honey from those who befriend me
And spew poison at those who hate.

25. I have steeled myself in pursuit of greatness,
And a sword is not to be awed or blunted.

26. And I have words that come to my aid whenever
I call them in time of need, fully sufficient.

27. Ask glory about me, do not be shy,
For glory knows which sword is sharpened.