1. Neither yearning nor envious of the slain of Dunf,
Who spent the night wakeful and vigilant,

2. As if sleep had shunned him in anger
At his prolonged passion and ardor,

3. Swearing never to return or lapse
Into the habit of tranquility, not to recur,

4. She who bid me farewell at dawn,
With tears congealed in my eyes,

5. My tears were dammed in their lids
Only to leave love without a witness,

6. After her loss, I feign no more coyness,
Deceit blossomed over people like the disavower,

7. I rose with a heart anxious and distressed
By her farewell, thus it rose seated,

8. Seeking the stance of parting, and what
Fine game seeks its own hunter,

9. I led my heart astray, reciting verses to it,
Would that I knew who recites to the reciter!

10. And I realized that our paths,
Though our abodes differed, were one,

11. As though we and parting were destrier horses
Scattered in a herd on barren land,

12. You plant evil and will not behold wonder,
Like a planter whose harvest is his reaper,

13. Resolute in her view of a decree,
That would undo the knots of the binder,

14. Then she turned away, disappointed,
Hounded, driven by the driver,

15. Her boughs fall, so he breaks them
With blades, her defiant devil,

16. Who would dam water where it had flowed
If barriers prevented the flow?

17. He rains upon it, before overflowing,
Swords that do not drink the cold,

18. Why did she fix hearts to her
To wander at her slightest stir?

19. Is she anything but a sword? And who
Could bring her joy but the armed?

20. Abu al-Jaysh once showed, when protecting
The brave from harm, a father’s warmth,

21. He draws the cowardly wretch
To his help, so the seeker finds his goal,

22. Saying, acting in his hour
Nothing but what makes it promising,

23. And, Majid, I almost became, by what
I described of his mettle, myself praiseworthy,

24. The rain cloud that you disputed has passed,
So refrain, though its rain should recur.