1. Love is agony, so surrender to passion, for love is no easy path.
He who chooses it with wisdom chose travail for himself though he be wise.

2. Live free of love, for its comfort is moaning,
Its beginning sickness, its end death.

3. Yet in it I find a sweet vitality -
Life for one whose merit I adore.

4. I advise you, knowing of love and seeing
My ways rejected, so choose what pleases you.

5. If you wish to live in bliss then die a martyr for it,
Or else love's sickness has heirs enough.

6. Who dies not of his love, lives not by it,
Without bees sipping nectar, no honey in the comb.

7. Cling to love's hem, doff the monk's habit,
Leave ascetics be, though highly revered.

8. Tell the slain of love: you kept faith with it.
Tell the pretender: you are far from its kohl.

9. Some approached love, then shunned its health
In their hearts jealous of my wisdom and faltered.

10. Satisfied with vain hopes they risked caprice
And sounded the seas of love with empty claims.

11. They stirred not from their tracks, walked not its path,
Lost, though equipped, wandering not its course.

12. Preferring blindness to my vision,
Straying in themselves, envious.

13. O loves of my heart, through love intercede for me,
Reach out if you will, renew severed ties.

14. If you glance my way kindly, no sweeter joy,
No fairer grace than your messengers.

15. Loves, be the age bitter or sweet,
I am the same, be what you will of me.

16. If my lot is your estrangement, no enmity,
For your estrangement is to me union.

17. Rejection from you is nothing but affection
Save when disdainful, and that is bearable.

18. Your torment is sweet, your injustice, justice
I ever acquiesce in all love ordains.

19. My patience with you and for you
Seems forever as bitterness that tastes sweet.

20. You claimed my heart, part of me, so why not
Take all, no loss to you, though I lose all.

21. You deserted me, tears my only comfort,
Scorching sighs from the fires of ardent love.

22. My waking eyes are tombs where you dwell immortal,
My sleep is dead, tears my washing of you.

23. A love who slaked his thirst between seeing you
And my eyes, his wine poured from them in draughts.

24. My people blamed me, seeing me enamored, obsessed,
And said "What ails this youth, whom passion disturbs?"

25. And what is said of me but that I live
Blessed with neglect, while love engrosses me?

26. The womenmock and say "We were shunned
By those we cherished; low estate after honor."

27. If ever you glance at me in kindness,
No bliss is sweeter, no beauty fairer.

28. My eyes are dimmed, having seen none but you,
My lids tattooed with the kohl of your rebuke.

29. They know I am slain by your glances,
Your swords pierce each limb and organ.

30. My passion is old in loving you, no innovation,
As you know well, no precedent before.

31. I have no equal in loving you, just as
You are matchless in beauty, none compares.

32. Unlawful to cure my sickness save through you
I accept however you divide love's means.

33. So in you my state improves, my worth never falls,
The standard you set me, through you I rise higher.

34. What I found and suffered in you
Is the gist of my words, I have not been prolix.

35. I hid my misery until my visitors were lost,
No shade covers one who owns no shade.

36. No eye ever glimpsed my trace,
No mark of me in love's tracks for eyes to discern.

37. I have a pride, when I recall it, it soars high,
A spirit, that at the least thought of you, transcends.

38. Your love courses my veins and joints,
To love you is my sole concern, all else forgotten.

39. Rival me in sacrificing life for your love,
For should you accept, how excellent the sacrifice!

40. Who finds no bliss in love, though he gave up the world,
Is mean, but to lavish oneself is boundless generosity.

41. But for protecting your honor in jealous caution—
Be the passionate many or few—

42. I would say to those who crave your union:
“Unite with her by my example, turn only to her.”

43. And if she is ever recalled, bow down in worship,
And if she glances in your direction, kneel and pray.

44. For her I traded happiness for misery,
My reason, led astray by love, grew reasonable.

45. I said to guidance, devotion and piety:
“Begone, leave no space between love and I.”

46. I emptied my heart of all but thoughts of you,
Hoping through loving you to be alone with you.

47. For you I vie with those who vie with us
And race with those who never race fairly.

48. I delight telling tales between us, for her to know
What passes and what she knows not in her ignorance.

49. I show goodwill to those who slander her
As if they were envoys of love between us.

50. If they speak I am all ears, if I speak,
My eloquent tongue flows sweetly.

51. Our words disagree, contradicting each other,
With no basis to their vagrant suspicions.

52. Some denounced our union though no union occurred,
Others trembled from a joining that never occurred.

53. No true denunciation with her so hostile to me,
Nor true tremors, mere empty rumors and tales.

54. How expect joining with one who cannot conceive
A thought of fulfilling the dream without roads closing?

55. If she promises, deeds never match her words,
Yet if she pledges words, deeds outrun them.

56. Promise me a union and keep postponing its payment,
For if love is true, postponement has its own beauty.

57. No oath sworn between us do I deem dissolved,
No covenant between us undone.

58. You alternate hot wrath and cool consent,
Yet in my heart you dwell each moment.

59. One day my friends will look upon my loves,
Chide my days, and reunions will come to pass.

60. Never did they depart in meaning, I see them with me,
If absent in form, still in memory they take shape.

61. They are my heart's concern apparent wherever they are,
And dwell in my soul unseen wherever they alight.

62. They have my lasting affection though aloof,
I lean forever toward them though distant.