1. How can I be calm when my heart cannot forget you,
And my tongue finds no sweetness but mentioning you.

2. I complain of passion to gentle Umaymah;
For the troubled one is often soothed by the troubled.

3. Of my life, I count not the days though they pass pleasantly,
Except the day I met you, as more than all.

4. For you the tribe’s protection is no refuge
And none but the passionate heart is your refuge.

5. Part of me suffers for love of you, so my eye weeps
While my heart loves on.

6. If my tears flow when your mouth smiles,
It is because I have made of my tears pearls for your mouth’s string.

7. And if I weep over your anklet rings,
Are they not fashioned of your twisting locks?

8. I did not know the pearl’s abode
Could be your cheeks, my eyes, your glances.

9. And many a night has dawn revealed me there
Where your cheek’s dawning sun first shone upon me.

10. Terror almost parted us, diffusing fragrance,
The zephyr telling the thorn-bush of your drink and your approach.

11. Then you walked away. The ground touched by your steps
Breathed only sweet perfume.

12. You, Sa’d, urge me to control my grief
Now that the deer I love has escaped my snare!

13. Let the dawn tell, who knows my weeping,
Ask its smile about the weeping eyes.