1. You made us a promise, so why did you not fulfill it?
You told us a word, so why did you not act upon it?

2. We kept affection for you though you wasted its ties,
So different we are, both now and before.

3. We stayed up preserving love while you slept,
And wakeful and sleeping are not the same.

4. We had agreed to hide our passion
Yet the slanderer tempted you, and you spoke and told.

5. You blamed and said I oppressed love,
You spoke true - such was the talk, you spoke true.

6. So, O loved ones, in anger or pleasure,
In any case, you are never absent.

7. And many a night in your love I spent sleepless
Tossing and turning, as they say, building and destroying.

8. With some people I have a tormented heart -
Would that it might weep for that one and have mercy!

9. Not every eye is like my eye, inspired,
Nor every heart like my heart, suffering.

10. Except for a lover whose pact time destroys -
He is absent, so I forget, or present, so I weary.

11. O my friend, were it not for barriers holding me back
I would complain openly and not conceal.

12. I will chide some people if listening they be,
Yet you are the one I mean, from you nothing hidden.

13. If my opponent in youth is also my judge,
To whom shall I complain or protest?

14. Were it not for my disdain for reproachers,
I would turn my afflictions from them and me.

15. So, O reproacher, how great the distance between us!
My talk of passion is beyond what you can conceive.

16. I used to weep if the beloved was harsh,
Especially since he is the trusted, honored one.

17. My prince, whom I used to draw near and by his nearness
Rule the world - by him I was empowered.

18. I will be patient, not that I can bear his estrangement,
Perhaps the nights of his desertion will crumble away.

19. The enemies said, "The honored one is fond,"
So I said to them, "The honored one is most noble."

20. My prince, if I approach a benefactor,
And my prince, if I draw near, is a bestower.

21. My pact with him is of ample goodness,
Overlooking much, pardoning, and forbearing.

22. Of the elite whose spirits humble
The audacious, causing them to wither and waver.

23. They are the people, all the people of faith and piety,
And needless to say, those people are they.

24. When they speak of Moses and Ahmed's excellence,
To God belongs an inheritance there apportioned.

25. My lord, I seek refuge in you, sheltered,
Exalting you, complaining to you, revering you.

26. Shall I deny the gifts you have granted me,
That my flesh and blood thereby acknowledge?

27. By God, I have never failed to thank for a blessing,
And suffice it that God is Highest, All-Knowing.

28. So, O you who have abandoned me, intending abandonment,
To which people, after you, shall I incline?

29. Know that a land where I resided has withered,
Though abundant in riches, it is deprived.

30. And a time whose turns have driven me away,
I have tried to distance myself from you, unwilling.

31. In God's lands I have a place to roam and settle,
And from God's bounty, fulfillment and gain.

32. And I know I was wrong to part from you,
And you in that matter are greater than I.

33. Who amongst you has reproached me for my poverty?
The people's conjecture is miserable, how I imagine it!

34. No home or abode was sweet away from you,
Even if residence and Zamzam contained me therein.

35. And the like of you does not grieve over a secretary,
Rather, he grieves over you and regrets.

36. So who can be brought near you and chosen,
To write what is divinely inspired and conceal it?

37. And who satisfies you with insight,
To speak and discern, or gesture and understand?

38. Not all garden blossoms are fragrant,
Nor all melodious birds melodic.

39. Would that this year that came inclining
May pour upon us your pleasure and be apportioned!

40. And may the years continue to come and go
Commencing them with righteous acts and concluding them.

41. Lighting the nights of time with your radiance
And its days with joy smiling.

42. Would that I knew, if fulfilling this wish is decreed,
For whom I compose these words and versify them -

43. A kinsman, as chastity desires, pure,
Praise, as high ideals desire, revered,

44. Complaint, as the breeze gently blows,
Reproach, as threaded pearls are stringed symmetrically.

45. It came late for the time of delight because
Every day from you has a season.

46. And you know, in my time I stand alone,
My words the last though presented first.