1. Is it a glance that has been darkened with kohl, or a sword?
Is it a branch that has swayed, or a figure?

2. Is it a cheek that has blushed, or a rose?
Is it saliva that has sweetened, or wine?

3. Is it a lightning that has glittered in the darkness,
Or a radiance that shone upon gloom - or a smile?

4. Is it a mouth that we have seen, or rubies?
Is it a pearl that we have heard, or speech?

5. Is it a dawn that has appeared, or the light of a cheek?
Is it a face that has shone, or a full moon?

6. I have not been ignorant as it was evident, but
Rapture distracted me from verifying it.

7. The light of beauty was waving in it,
And that is water with which ailments are healed.

8. How much fire have I extinguished from my heart,
By which the embers flared up in my heart!

9. I increased the passion for it, beyond vowing
And it increased upon union within me, passion.

10. And the days of vowing are undoubtedly an epoch,
And the days of union are delirium.

11. And there is from love no day of deliverance,
Nor upon love, does blame avail anything.

12. Does blame avail, while lovers are deaf,
Then mute, then blind, wherever they became impassioned?

13. And my beloved is not a youth,
Nor am I one whom a youth has possessed.

14. Nor am I one whom passions have possessed,
Nor a frame that wavers, nor a figure.

15. Nor a face that illuminates thereby darkness,
Even if the covering were not drawn from it.

16. And my beloved is the perfection of the world,
And other than his love is, to me, forbidden.

17. And I have a soul that refuses humiliation,
And without my humbling myself, death is miserable.

18. It inclines toward noble deeds and lofty goals,
And none but the generous have inclined to this.

19. Nor does the soul of a noble one accept disgrace,
Nor accept it, except the ignoble.

20. It desires that it tread upon the Pleiades,
And that it be served by the greatest sultans.

21. And that it take, above the orbit of the sun, a house,
And be erected above the highest pillars.

22. And that it be furnished with good fortune and glory,
And clothed with perfection, and not deprived.

23. And that it reside in bliss, in clarity,
While happiness remains with it, everlasting.