1. Alas! Would that lightning's gleam envelop
The flowing train of my streaming tears!

2. Would that it mount the back of the morning breeze,
Noble, from the night of parting set loose,

3. And make its way to a grave in Homs, delivering
A greeting, once the breeze can bear it gently wafting!

4. For in Homs, what a woeful glance of yearning,
And for the star, what a glance of one who wakes at night!

5. A glance of tenderness toward that far-off grave
Where the elements have scattered dust once joined,

6. And how can I complain in an hour when I quenched
My thirst while all the distance between us gaped?

7. Does Abdelilah harbor what night after night enfolds
Of burning anguish and torment from despair?

8. The past recalled our companionship, ruins
That made me recall the ringdoves' weeping circles.

9. I wept as passion for what had passed enshrouded me,
A tale, a time of youth's first trembling steps.

10. I opened my lips to sigh with the winds,
But found in them only that sweet redolence gone.

11. When sorrow rose in the face of day,
The sun turned on it a glance full of concern,

12. I leaned my cheek on tombs, crying out at times,
Kissing their dust at times in my fervor.

13. And to one ungranted rest from fate’s caprice,
I said, while I passed the night awake in torment:

14. “Time’s accidents have torn our circle apart.
After this rupture, will we meet again?”

15. If we two are to meet again somewhere, sometime,
Oh, that I knew where and how we will reunite!

16. How cruel that you and I drifted apart,
You not knowing where you ended up, nor I where I alighted.

17. I watch the first tumble while the second climbs the ascent.
Pour a drink for a grave amid crumbling bones

18. When I recall it – how I will yearn!
I bend my ribs to mourn glory and delight

19. With the most eloquent tears beneath the dumbest façade.
When I walk a step through its courtyard,

20. I stumble on tears, broken open there.
Whenever I kiss the ground in a craving for his tomb,

21. I find its dust exuding a delicate scent.
And one like me weeps for loss with his like:

22. Let beautiful patience show me how to be patient!
On the day of panic he was formidable with my hands;

23. On the day of pride a crown on my temples.
A smooth-cheeked charmer, vibrant with loftiness,

24. Striding with well-bred ease, not pretentious.
And he wears the beautiful name like a splendid cloak,

25. Finer than the youth of spring in fragrance.
He shoots a sure arrow straight to its intended,

26. To lodge precisely in auspicious success.
He was done in between a palm made to bestow

27. And a face made to shine light with an open smile.
So many tears does life hold – and thunder,

28. Rumbling from clouds over it, cracked open!
So many hearts for lightning, fluttering,

29. So many eyes for stars, kept sleepless!
As if I never sensed in his good news a smiling flash

30. Of downpour from his generosity, poured forth!
As if I never said, in the shade of his caring,

31. Dewy with light for his cheerfulness, gleaming:
As if, the night we walked, I never turned

32. To a companion who casts darkness into light!
No son of leftists, he wandered as if

33. Behind the veils of night, the star Canopus touched him!
He strode amid downpour from监督 censorship

34. And flames from a fully blazing lightning flash,
With the trains of my eyelids, wilting,

35. And a wing from my ribs spread out then snapped shut!
Does there remain with Abdelilah what night after night enfolds