1. Two children like brothers, united
Both grew into youth, their hearts filled with passion

2. Joking with one another, as if their very souls
Were one soul with two images, inseparable

3. Sharing in good and bad times alike
As two eyes share sight

4. For a time they remained in this bond
Then it was broken, and the two friends parted

5. She was his companion, and he was hers
But fate intervened, severing their closeness

6. Grieving at this separation, to the point that
Those two youths delighted in nothing

7. Soon their intellects matured
And they learned to think before their time

8. Exchanging letters, though neither wrote well,
With remembrance, the messenger of every garden

9. Sharing their sorrows, each lamenting their pain
A lament that evoked the suffering of the troubled

10. And confiding their hopes for nearness
After the discord of parting

11. But the distance grew long, and both were preoccupied
From painful thoughts by other matters

12. So they entrusted themselves to two schools
To be reared in manners and wisdom

13. And forget that old love
In the company of peers and fellows

14. There they learned proper speech and were trained
In the writing of letters, both at once

15. Until, when they shaped words, these flowed as if
Their two pens had agreed on utterances

16. Empty of meaning, though in their hearts
Were the dearest hopes and meanings of life

17. Bringing together all eloquence in two names
Written without beauty or skill

18. The youth wrote “Salma” and Yusuf drew
And to you, some of what they meant to convey:

19. The youth said: O she whose name adorned me
I drew it though my hands trembled

20. I pictured it as if her image appeared
In it - I saw her through it, and she saw me

21. I worshipped its letters like the obscure signs
Of an idol, seen by a pagan worshipper

22. But the paper cut me, pressed to my chest
And the fluttering of my heart quickened

23. While my pen, insistently kissing
Those letters with murmuring lips, made me jealous

24. So I broke it in two, imagining that I had
Punished those sinful lips

25. Salma - how sweet her name and its letters
Linked like strings of pearls

26. Entwined, suckling together the water of life
While they are cups, pliant and submissive

27. If they were separated, it would be mournful
Like an orphan severed from the nursing breast

28. O you of letters, do you know
What kindness I have shown you?

29. If I were made of you, I would live forever blissful
In the sweetest place and company

30. I would not, at our separation, wander as I do
A soul longing for its body’s absence

31. The days of longing have been long, Salma, so are we
Approaching a time of unity?

32. You remain my sights and thoughts
Though my lips are desolate

33. Would that we were children again, never leaving
That state until the end of time!

34. They called you “frivolity” in school -
They lied! Ask the loather of frivolity!

35. In me is an ardor I hid from them
As embers conceal the flames within

36. Salma, all knowledge is contained in one phrase
Like a drop of perfume, the extract of gardens

37. Salma, you are life - and eternal bliss
Can only be bought with your return

38. I will strive to gain means and draw nearer
A time when I hold the reins again

39. Then I will fly to you from passion’s fervor
And achieve the harvest of my thirsting heart

40. She said, having drawn his name upon the page:
O you at whose love I surrendered my being

41. And dissolved into adoration, until I seemed
To have fallen into adoration of myself

42. Let my childhood companion be ransom for you
And I will pass into you the intimacy of longing

43. I pretended to admire your absent beauty
With letters I formed with my fingers

44. I formed them as if I had depicted them
From an image painted in my soul

45. I traced them, and though their letters in my core
Are fiery, written in my blood

46. My family wishes me future happiness
Through knowledge, though it is my second misery

47. Can the promise of youth be wasted on other than love
When life after one’s prime is fleeting?

48. Should we not increase our certainty in our misguidance
And by our ignorance be rid of the best of times?

49. Leave the bird to flutter merrily
In his air, roaming every place

50. And let them reunite in their harmony, and be happy
For a while before the age of sorrows

51. This small amount of meaning surpassed
What one person can contain, yet two names held it

52. Though the eloquence of the world may fall short
Of what two children pen in guidance