1. From the people of ease are you departing so early
Tomorrow morning or a traveler so you hasten

2. For a soul's need, its answer you didn't state
So you'd make an excuse and the talk excuses

3. You rave for ease; neither has union gathered
Nor is the rope connected, nor the heart neglectful

4. Neither is being near ease useful if it draws close to you
Nor does its remoteness console you or are you patient

5. And another came without ease and the like of it
The prohibition if you heed or think

6. When I visit ease he's not ceased to be a relative
Whenever I meet him, he scowls

7. Dear to him that I reside at her abode
He makes hostility pleasant to me and hatred prominent

8. Mention me to her in greeting, though he
Announces my frequency with her and denies

9. By the sign of what she said the morning I met her
At the cusp of furrows, "Is this the frequenter?"

10. "Stand and look, Asma. Do you recognize him?
Is this the Mughayri whom we mentioned?"

11. "Is this he whom you described and I was not
By your life, I forgot him until I'm buried."

12. She said "Yes, no doubt. Travel has changed his color.
The nights' wakefulness rejuvenated his vigor and estrangement."

13. "If it's him, after us it's changed him
From the pact, and man can change."

14. She saw a man, but when the sun rises on him
He's radiant. And at night he's slender.

15. The brother of travel, answering the land which tossed him,
So exiles, he's disheveled, dusty.

16. Little, by his riding beast, is his shadow
Except what his reddened cloak denied from him.

17. And I was astonished by her life, the shadow of a room
And sprouting greenery, winding gardens, green.

18. And a satisfying guardian who spared her everything she cared for
So for nothing else would she stay up nights.

19. And the night of cycles, fright gripped me.
Fright can grip a lover, a deceiver.

20. So I stayed up watching over the comrades nearby
I'm wary of them, of whoever goes around, I watch

21. When sleep takes hold of them and the sitting disperses
Were it not for dim light, it would be impassable.

22. And my belonings stayed in the wilderness while its luggage
For a night visitor or whoever came, lost.

23. And I stayed addressing my soul "Where does it hide
And how can I acquire it from the matter?"

24. So my heart guided me. I knew it.
It and the soul's passion which almost appeared.

25. So when I lost their voices and their lamps
Were extinguished, lit for dinner and bright.

26. And the Pleiades I hoped for their disappearance vanished
And the shepherd slept and the conversationalist.

27. And sleep lowered from me. I went confidently
In the beloved's walk while my focus is fear of the living, I visit.

28. So when I surprised her, she turned away
And almost with lowered greeting she raised her voice.

29. And she said, biting her lip, embarrassing me,
"And you are a man of ease. Is your matter difficult?"

30. "Did you think when you're here it pained you?
You feared and around me are your enemies present?"

31. "By God, I don't know! Do you hasten a need
That drove you? Or did who you feared sleep?"

32. I said to her "Rather, passion and love
Drove me to you and no eye of people looks."

33. She said, and her fright subsided and her alarm calmed
"Not so! May your Lord, the Great, protect you!"

34. "You are Abu Bakr, not defending me.
The commander, I did not stay plotting."

35. So I stayed, sated, given my need.
I kiss her mouth privately so I repeat.

36. Oh, what a night whose length was short
And Layla's night before that did not shorten.

37. Oh, what an amusement there while our sitting
No spoiler troubled us.

38. Musk diffuses from her, pierced,
Of delicate edges, setting suns adorned.

39. You'd see it when it parts from her as if it's
Pebbles of hail or glowing pearls.

40. And she glanced at me as the white-eye gazelle glanced
At an ostrich amidst the sand-ridge.

41. So when the night finished except its end
And its stars nearly disappeared

42. She gestured the living's disturbance neared them
A gale, but promise me you'll visit.

43. So I didn't heed except a caller "They traveled!"
And daybreak whitened from the dawn.

44. So when she saw who woke of them
And roused them, she said "Order! What do you command?"

45. I said "I'll destroy them. Either I miss them
Or the sword takes revenge so it avenges."

46. She said "Truly, confirming what the slanderer said of us
And verifying what was rumored?"

47. "If it's inevitable, then another
Way is more hidden and veiled."

48. "I'll tell my sister the beginning of our talk
And it's not for me they know, late."

49. "Maybe they'll find an exit for you
And welcome openly what I was concealing."

50. So she stood sadly, no blood in her face
From grief, shedding copious tears.

51. So two servant girls stood, wearing
Green brocade, Damascene, and green.

52. And she told her sister "Help a lad
Who came visiting, and the matter is up to the commander."

53. So they came, startled, then said
"Lessen blame on you, the matter is easier."

54. The younger said "I'll give him my veil
And my coat of mail and this fur coat, if he fears."

55. "He'll stand and walk between us in disguise
So our secret won't spread and he won't appear."

56. So my protection from those I feared
Were three figures: twisting, pressing, squeezing.

57. So when we crossed the quarter, they told me
"Do you not fear enemies while the night is bright?"

58. And they said "Is this your way, roaming nights,
Do you not feel shame, reconsider or reflect?"

59. "When you come, divert your eye from us
So they think passion is where you look."

60. So the last time with her was when she turned away
And her cheek appeared, pure and reddened.

61. Except that I said "O Ease!" addressing her
While the slave-girls scold and deter.

62. Happy are the people of Al-Amariyya, its place
Is delightful and the meadow I remember.

63. And I stood to a she-camel who betrayed her intent
The nights' wakefulness until her flesh peeled.

64. And my denial of wants until they were
Like a plank's remainder or trimmed trees.

65. And from water at Ma'ma, little comforting it
Tadpoles never renewed it in summer.

66. In it an abode for spiders as if it's
On the water-pit's edge, feeble, deployed.

67. So I rode while clueless, after my return
From the night, was it most of it passed or more?

68. I stood to the bending of land as if it's
A madwoman when she looks.

69. She competes with me for water. Her head
And without what she desires, her heart twisted.

70. Trying for the water, if not for her bridle
And my pulling her, she almost broke.

71. So when I saw the harm in her and that
I'm in a land with no presser in it,

72. I shortened for her from the basin's side a
New canal like the span or less.

73. When she wades in it, the extent of
Her hooves' meeting has no concealed cubit.

74. And no bucket except the waterskin whose
Drawing to the water is ample and the leather bag adorned.

75. So she traveled while she did not quench and her drinking
Did not prevent her from the irrigation - troubled from the water, turbid.