1. What is with me and with the fluttering of leaves?
They increase my anxiety and unease.

2. They filled my nights with sorrow for what they evoked
Of tales of love for me and longings.

3. And they came pleading through their songs and interceded
For the captive of teardrops in my eyes that seek release.

4. They brought down on me Jacob’s sorrows for what
They made me hear of Isaac’s singing.

5. Had I believed the false claims of passion’s permanence,
They would have lasted from love remaining.

6. Were your tears from sorrow, fountains would have gushed
Forth with weeping, torrents bursting.

7. You dyed hands crimson, graced necks with necklaces
And in the dawn, nestled in branches, adorned with leaves.

8. I am one who when tears diminished for a person
Questioned my streaming tears for explanation.

9. And when at night the crested hoopoe returns
To her chicks after roaming far,

10. She casts off her wandering staff and swallows
A cup of sorrow till sunrise,

11. Or if a long night comes to one restless,
Sorrow shreds it, stoking disquiet,

12. And remembrance hurls at my bedclothes missiles
No medicine can counter or potion cure,

13. Longing for people whose place is my heart
Though distant on my horizons.

14. I left them, unable to bid farewell,
Or turn my hand to embrace.

15. Days before hurried my departure
From a friend, hastening my course.

16. Today they envy me one I did not reach
And squeeze me for the taste they stole.

17. By God, if sustenance is apportioned,
And they are not struck by separation’s arrow,

18. I am distinguished by distance and estrangement
From those I love, with amplest shares.