1. When the one I love departed one day
She left me with anguish too great to bear

2. She wonders at my longing though we've been apart so long
Yet none but the heart's beloved feels such pining

3. No healing eased my pain the day she turned away
Indifferent, preparing to journey on

4. Though our love was close, she left me in sorrow
My heart enduring a searing, bitter draught

5. Whenever I yearned, I would weep copiously
Tears flowing from these sad eyes in streams

6. Only sighs and moans remain of those tears
And only the throbbing of an aching heart

7. Oh, would that this separation remain, to let me weep
And fulfill the pact of love and pour my tears!

8. Yet I disdain affection from a fickle lover;
I'm intrigued by one whose love proves false.

9. I spurn pure kindness from one devoted,
Though rejection wounds me when it comes from one I love!

10. Thus souls are led astray by their passions,
Urging them on to their far-flung goals.

11. If that veiled one were to ask about my nature,
Truth would inform her, for it knows my ways.

12. No shameful deed has marred my past,
Though women have tempted men before me.

13. So behold me, girl, thrusting with the spear,
Cleaving the tallest spear-shafts with its point!

14. All the Indian swords are but instruments for my slashing,
And I slice them apart in the fray, smooth and thin!

15. No ambition ever betrayed me, though fate has oft
Thwarted my hopes of glory and cast them down.

16. In times of woe, I made my worry my ambition;
How many straits has this anxiety resolved!

17. We were deluged as with the surging waves of a mirage,
Flung this way and that while the billows raged.

18. Like ships of wood where the hands are oars
Driven on by the rider, we surged ahead.

19. We seek life from the blessings of Muhammad's son,
And what sky is there untouched by his light?

20. We were not forewarned before we healed with his kindness
The deep gashes of past calamities.

21. Reaching one whose glory rivals his
Is a gift to the far-ranging mounts bringing delegations.

22. They ascend beyond the climes of every land,
Approaching kings, but he surpasses them all,

23. A king whose light, if it graced the brow
Of the new moon, would outshine its crescent curve.

24. Ambitions, when he resolves upon them,
Slice like a sharpened sword blade, smooth and thin.

25. His palace seems taller when the banners rise high;
His arrows fly farther when the bowstrings twang.

26. His sword drove back the foe until, terrified,
They turned and fled from his onslaught.

27. The lion cub would not attack without the lion there,
Nor would fire blaze had it no kindling.

28. God spared in you religion, valor and justice;
The foe's eyes did not gaze on them undimmed.

29. You shunned the world - had its kingdom been yours,
Some part might have pleased your noble being.

30. Humility, faith, justice and mercy -
Rightly you claimed these blessings as your own.

31. You ascended, yet no seeker of bounty found you distant,
Like a fruit-laden palm sheltered by its branches.

32. May your abode not lack hopes finding rest,
Unburdening the weary and freeing the fettered.

33. You attained the heights of each hidden goal,
For none attains such peaks but those who lead the way.

34. When you dug trenches to thwart the unassailable,
The past ones winced, their taste turned sour.

35. When ranks are arrayed for battle, trenches like these
Suffice you against the need to dig them yourself.

36. Yet this shows wisdom in the course of caution -
Frustrating thereby the enemy's cunning designs.

37. Each day brings us a holiday made new with you,
Mornings of congratulations and evenings of gaiety.

38.
Thus we thrive on your endless bounty,

39. Tasting unspoiled delights at their source.
I stopped composing rhymes, for none but you

40. Pleases me of all who possess lands and subjects.
Deserted but in your presence, their meadows lie waste;

41. Forsaken but on the path to you, their roads forgotten -
Why shouldn't I extol the praiseworthy?

42. Eloquence pours honeyed meanings from my tongue.
Though necklaces of every kind be gathered,