1. I see in the gazelle of the valley, traits
So I yearn for him whenever his easy goingness passes.

2. The twigs of the limber tree sway and so do
His robes in my mind and his features.

3. I almost embrace every bending branch
For his sake, and shake its hand,

4. And love the light of the full moon on the night it is complete
For his traits have appeared in it from him.

5. My companion said, your love has made you silent
You are lost in thought, its wanderer.

6. So I said, all decency is in following his love
If his face smiles at me, its morning light.

7. And they said, you have wasted your life in loving the slender one
And because you were occupied with the gazelles, your interests were lost.

8. So I said to them, how excellent is what I have spent
On one whose love is a treasure whose keys are burdensome.

9. I ransom every gazelle between plain and rock
For the fondness of a gazelle in the heart is its playground.

10. And no matter how he tortures me, his torture is sweet
And no matter how he deprives me of sleep, I pardon him.

11. How joyous is the night whose vigil I keep
And how holy are the tears that I shed.

12. And they said, you have crossed forty years yet passion
Has cried out loudly inside you, to youth its caller.

13. And they did not know that the expert, though aged
Is unmatched by the long traveling assailant.

14. Yes, I am the sultan of love, and here
Are its pages in my care and its booklets.

15. If in the book of love an enamored reader
My heart has dictated it and my tears have edited it.

16. I am the youth infatuated with his beloved’s mention
And its meaning’s condition is the absence of senses.

17. Empty when he wanted to pray, his greetings
Intermingled with his remembrance and its initiations.