1. He wandered, searching the abodes of fair maidens,
Asking after the location of the dwelling,

2. Why has he been left upon the plain?
Washed smooth above, rumpled below,

3. For the sake of a tender-hearted beloved who
Sometimes draws near and other times withdraws.

4. And every quarter shrinks its inhabitants,
Little by little, until they must depart.

5. Indeed my loved ones have departed from it
When they left, though we had no substitute for them.

6. Times when we reveled in bliss through it
As though we created beauty in every art -

7. In the intoxication of youth and blindness in which
We heard nothing but youth and were not rational,

8. Until when its blindness was uncovered
I gave comfort to my soul, though the blamer blamed.

9. A soul that was not blaming during its intoxication
Could find no comfort in one who blamed.

10. And of ambitions whose reward I risked
On the deceptive mirage of the agitated desert,

11. On a she-camel whose mother is the north wind, one who
Extends into lightning and does not falter,

12. And a doe sufficient for riding her
Is to stir the whip and say “Get up!”

13. She looks after a withered old man who preferred
As much of his money as he spent

14. O you who began though you were not asked,
You, though not asked, thus did act.

15. By God I swear, if I had asked you when
You owned nothing, you’d have given me to the sandal.

16. Blessed is God, this is a generosity
That no other was given before or since.

17. God has placed in the fingers of Abraham
Provision for the weak and downcast.

18. So you see no era betrays him,
Except by the open-handedness of his palm they are tested.

19. No beautiful person do we know
Whose slightest action is not most beautiful.

20. O you who expose stinginess, you have left no youth
Called generous, except that he is shamed.