1. Read my greetings to the one I do not name
The one whose soul I would ransom from adversities

2. The one I pretend not to notice when I remember
For if I recalled another, it would be him I mean

3. Hint at me when speaking confidentially to him
For implication in my meanings suffices him

4. And ask if he is pleased with my body's deprivation
Then how pleasing is all that would please him

5. If only my beloved's eyes could see me from afar
My state and the adversity I endure for him

6. Was I of Moses' people in my love for him
That my torment from him wanders endlessly?

7. I loved all who bore his name among people
And all who embodied any of his qualities

8. He is absent yet my thoughts depict him
It seems I confide my innermost thoughts to him

9. My heart fears no injustice with my beloved within
For the dweller of that abode protects him

10. Who is like my heart or the one dwelling in it?
God protect my heart and him inside it

11. O fairest of all, o you I do not confess
O you who picked me, and how sweet your picking

12. God has saddened an eye that now loneliness pains
And God has gladdened a heart that now houses him

13. My Master, ardent love for you now widely known
How can I hide it or keep it unseen?

14. Talk of me excites the slanderer's fancy
He has concerned himself with what's not his business

15. So one who spread a secret I used to hide
Until I found the garden's breeze relaying it

16. My messenger, beseech him when you ask
Perhaps you will incline him affectionately toward me

17. When asking, seek one noble in his glory
Do not request water but from its springs