1. How long will you be so aloof and unkind
To one whose heart your love has made blind?

2. Is it not enough, the tears that I have shed,
While passion's flames within my eyelids spread?

3. You made my eyes a fountain of flowing tears,
While in my heart the fire of love still sears,

4. Have mercy, mercy on my life, for I
Am left bewildered, stunned, confounded, dead.

5. The separation you imposed on me would break
The back of mountains, if its weight they had to take.

6. Alas for love that gave you right to end my life,
A haughty roe gazed on by lions fierce in strife!

7. My lover frowned at me with eyelids that entice,
Yet you spurned him: was this a cause for such device?

8. He charmed me with a look, a turn, and was for me
Spear-armed and mail-clad with his sorcery.

9. With his eyes he stole my soul, O excellent thief!
I stole a kiss from him, and he cried out in grief,

10. "This wrong of yours deserves a thousand strokes, on cheek
Or lips, if such your fancy seek!"

11. I said, "I have no power the penalty to pay,
That kiss I stole by force - stolen goods should be restored, they say."

12. He said, "By God, you are a brigand for sure!
A thief can only be stopped short by punishment severe."

13. He set aflame my heart, "More fire!" he said in jest,
I said "Enough!" He said "Then add some to the test!"

14. O noble men, have mercy on a man brought low,
Scorned by his critics envied by his foe,

15. Who moans in loneliness for one who was his friend,
And whom in love he cherished and defended,

16. Who left him lost in flames of passion's fire
Till love had made of him its own desire,

17. Abandoned, calling on his God alone,
While love has left him in oblivion thrown.

18. By day, by night, his heart is burning coal,
Extinguished by tears that from his eyelids roll.

19. Sickness wasted him till he was but a ghost,
Hidden from shame and from unfriendly boast.

20. So was he melted down, as if he were a paste
Poured into water, that dissolves and will not last.

21. And when his love at length was turned to hate,
He left this life; was ever known so dire a fate?