1. My heart is burdened, and its sorrows never cease,
And my humility has certainly grown more profound.

2. I saw lightning flash in the carnelian stones,
And I marvel at the light more than its nightfall.

3. I have sorrow that lasts my whole life through;
I guard it though the winds make me drag its train.

4. I tasked myself with patience though it recoiled—
Even if weeping brings relief unto souls.

5. Still I heave sigh after sigh
Though just a few, for many are their repetitions.

6. Within my ribs there glows an ardent ember
Fanned to flame by passion and yearning both.

7. So my verse ascends beyond all poetry,
For by the heights of my love-verse I speak it,

8. And if she’s gone from sight, still in my heart
Her shade remains, her close companion.

9. She is my pride, my soul, my dwelling-place,
My worldly life, my very soul her envoy;

10. With a glance of magic—what a sorceress!
I’d slay the most languid of maidens with her glance.

11. Her figure’s like a fawn’s, her waist so slim
It shames the most slender, surpassing all in grace.

12. A branch is hers, dark as the night, when the full moon rises,
The best of noble steeds, the longest neck in profile.

13. A chest so open over heavy buttocks—
The finest hips of women, the fullest cheeks.

14. She’s flawless but for her lineage, when it’s named,
Among all people, is of dubious origin.

15. Not many crave with passion such as mine,
Not two are passionate for her, none love so well.

16. How many a night I stayed up thanking fate!
The spheres above knew no setting, no going down.

17. I held the horses’ reins, driving them
Over land where lions cower at their stamping.

18. They stirred up the dust of the earth with bobbing forelocks
Snorting in confusion when the guide went astray.

19. They ranged the plains toward her, their goal Ulwa—
By my life, the terrain misled their guide!

20. They plowed the billows like a ship
On an ocean—were her tackling loosed she would sink.

21. I by her, brandishing my spear,
A sin the length of Sirius, pointing heavenward!

22. My words ascended past Suhail in rank and station,
Displaying the gems of pure maidens in their whinnying.

23. If I’m impoverished, my character is not made poor—
The best of it, in both worlds, is always precious.