1. He who has not been awed by love's sharp swords
Knows not how lovers wrestle and collide.

2. If it did not shake you, if you did not see it, ask
About the fever's flash within my pounding heart,

3. And listen to the crooning of the doves - their song
Will tell you of my fervor and all I long.

4. My flowing tears and burning sighs forewarn
Of being drowned and set aflame forlorn.

5. My heavy lids and frowning brow have sent
Yearning itself to those by passion rent.

6. For love's my faith, bewilderment my law,
And longing is my pact, desire my flaw.

7. And craving is my nature, youth my way,
And rapture is my wont, my moods hold sway.

8. So take my body, rob my soul outright -
What loss to you if you take what remains?

9. Though I've betrayed my soul's sworn covenant,
I would not shame the pact that I have meant.

10. Why then leave my heart fearful and confused
Between betrayal and the trust I've used?

11. Forgive me, I have erred, so treat Your slave with grace
Have mercy on those souls whom passions chase

12. Does not Your servant's dignity appease You enough
That You name him not with "freed" though in the rough?

13. When union's recalled, this abject soul is torn
Before the shackles binding him are worn.

14. He weeps for nights of bliss that ended, alas,
Between a kiss's balm and a sweet embrace,

15. Where the boughs bent, leaves whispered each to each,
And the blossoms leaned into a floral speech.

16. O you who've left me, haunting yet my heart,
Why did you not stay, time's march at least retard?

17. Show me some mercy, tenderness revive,
For kindness is the wont of those who strive.

18. And grant me by your nearness some boon, pride efface,
For God loves noble deeds and gentle grace.

19. Let it suffice that I spend my nights sleepless,
Restless of heart with burning, streaming eyes.

20. I watch the stars, whose talk reveals in signs
My lonely nights, the pain my being confines.

21. I question Gemini, speak to its pole
About the two stars rising, glowing whole.

22. To the rain's downpour, its lightning bright as swords,
I send my hot sighs, tears in flooding hordes.

23. I converse with the moon, whose song and trill
Echo my purpose or race up a hill.

24. To travelers I tell my quest for one
Lost in horizon's haze, vanished with the sun.

25. Perhaps good news of meeting waits in store,
Or fate's clinch loosens, opens freedom's door.

26. You blame and claim you wish me well, refrain!
Such hypocrisy is fakehood's clearest stain.

27. Spare me your zeal, reject my wish outright,
You're not tasked with my rescue or my plight!

28. For I made clear the passion path ahead
To souls by love so gently conquered.

29. Let loved ones know I will remain sincere,
Steadfast in love until I perish here.

30. I will not turn from one whose heart denies,
At parting's hour, the longing in his eyes.

31. Had you but seen us when compelled apart
By love's decree, you would have wept, oh heart!

32. You too would yearn, and for your yearning's ache,
Clouds' lids would rain with tears that crack and break.

33. My heart took flight, intellect no more could rein
When things flowed counter to concord's easeful reign.

34. Down my cheeks poured the red of streaming tears,
And down my face their heated flood appears.

35. He cried, "Are these tears or blood?" For many a tear
Is blood, when the heart's flames scorch and sear.

36. I said, my tears reveal upon my cheek
The fierce hell in me; look how blood they reek!

37. Think not the tears just spilled; my heart instead
Melted away and poured in waves they spread.

38. O people who pine, is there one who might save
Me from the blows of fate, passions that rend and rave?

39. Can someone douse the flames that sear my soul?
Stem the flood of my tears, help make me whole?

40. Can someone heal the first stab of my pain?
Ease the loss of my soul before it wanes?

41. Mend my broken heart, cure lovesickness and sorrow?
Bring dawn after the long night's empty hollow?

42. Meet me again as reunions have blessed?
My body wastes; these bonds arrest my quest.

43. Alas, no sigh relieves when the last meet nears.
No use in anything when the time of parting nears.

44. If the keeper of hellfire knew what awaited
In separation's purgatory, fated and hated,

45. He'd make the unbelievers drink Zaqqum's acidic brew,
Though they beg for water's mercy. That is their due.