1. I grieve for the days of our union
When life was expansive and free

2. I wore the cloak of glory
Like a blossom in its margins frilled

3. O Egypt’s days would that
You were ransomed by my remaining days

4. And by the side of Cairo I had
A moon, to whom my separation was painful

5. A moon whose separation I quaffed
Though bitter, from a streaming cup

6. And whose love made my blood flow
So my tears in blood are dissolved

7. My loved ones, what did you find
Of remoteness, and what did I find?

8. Had you come you would have seen
In Egypt, the fires of my ardor

9. A soul the heat sends aloft
In vapor and tears unceasing

10. I could not have patience without you
Had I been free of fetters

11. And indeed your specter was so kind
As to visit me by night and delight in reunion

12. It came to rest on my bed
While the night around was hushed

13. I spent the sweetest night
Twixt kissing and embraces

14. Then waking I found lingering
The perfume in my mantle’s folds

15. The virgins saw my face was not
Like theirs, radiant and lit

16. Since you left, falseness in love
Was never among my traits

17. Truly I wept and did not weep
From hypocrisy or guile

18. With gentle words the tears
Will flow, but in the heart’s taste

19. Know not if mouths did shape them
Or misfortunes brought them forth

20. Gentle their meanings, tender
Their utterance, and sweet their way

21. An Egyptian graced with
Iraq’s neighborhood’s charm