1. O youth who desires concealment of a matter causing him anguish,
Do you think that aloofness from me was defiance or bashfulness?

2. We have seen your expertise in barely perceptible intimate discourse,
And your companionship in softness when you fear harshness.

3. Words that in their phrasing are either gentle or embellished,
Tell me, may I ransom you, O my soul, O emulator of sprinkling.

4. Why do you choose companions, powerless, blind and deaf?
Do you not restrain yourself from the wrong, in the path of the misguided one who walked

5. And found censure lost, so he pastured on it and became cautious?
Then he twisted his beard, stretching from it and shaking off.

6. So if you see him while the scruff is recalcitrant,
You’d say a shepherd filled up then went to herd rams.