1. Longing stirs, and a heart that has throbbed before,
And an eyelid in the gloom I've taught to be sleepless,

2. And an eye socket burnt with chaste love,
If a tear flows, its fire grows more scorching.

3. Who of my fair people can judge me justly in love?
I'm his slave, and he is the one who gave me life.

4. When his smile hid from me, I wept blood
Like the sun that disappears but leaves a sunset glow.

5. Slender of waist by the gentle curve, poised of stature
Like a branch bearing damask, not mere leaves.

6. The hand of beauty wrote on his polished brow
A line whose essence is "Glory to Him who created!"

7. I scratched his cheek by accident with a glance
So he exacted from my liver injustice without mercy.

8. And for so long my eyes have stolen looks at him
That he said, I must cut out those who steal.

9. When the flirt saw the magic of my eyes, he covered up
Covetously, and traced spells on his temples.

10. Those legends wearied me, his beauties,
Until I saw lines that dazzle the eyes.

11. Necklaces I strung with ink on paper
Yet they were pearls, neither ink nor paper.

12. A composition by a hand like a foaming sea,
He who plunges into its billows will not escape drowning.

13. I ransom my soul for the servant of God, a man
Like pouring rain and the rising dawn.

14. More correct than one who pens a parchment, more eloquent than one who dictates, more articulate than one who pronounces the emphatic d.
He is the adept whose speech his tongue does not mar

15. Except with praise that came to me unasked.
If I was robed in wonder at him,

16. I learned refinement of character from his gentleness.
He watered the land of Zawra in Iraq

17. As the downpour watered its pastureland.
I knew the breeze blew from his direction

18. When I smelled the fragrance of his breath.
My yearning for his blessed quarter, a bird

19. Is the invalid's yearning for what will prolong his life.
A quarter that is the highest sphere - the stars rose in it

20. That rend the darkness.
Would that a meadow could quench my love-blight

21. From the river of peace, for my heart clings to it!
If I do not get a draft of it, oh my thirst!

22. As if the pouring rain could water me.