1. A passion hidden deep within my ribs
A secret guarded at the shrine preserved

2. An eye shedding tears on the ruins
Helping me on days of grief and loss

3. I yearn with longing like the doe at dusk
When from those lands all warmth has swerved

4. With a longing as love itself desired
Nothing but grief and moaning were deserved

5. Oh heart, is there no cure for your sickness in love?
It has made you truly mad in turn

6. Don't you still, whenever longing is renewed
Find tranquility when the slanderers adjourn?

7. My consolation in grief is only tears
Pouring like rain from swollen eyes downturned

8. After my neighbors turned hostile, who now
Can gently love me, as I see love spurned?

9. Though they reject a lover like myself
Eras of time for them are eras unlearned

10. One who sorrows for an absent love, whenever
Remote hills loom, feels depressed, forlorn

11. Those I loved are now far removed from me
All I wished for before we were parted, no more

12. My beloved ones, now that your company is seen
As forbidden to the lovesick, how can I go on?

13. Sorrow has ordained that when night falls
I lie down restlessly, with eyes that burn

14. And only sighing and moaning accompany
My troubled sleep and fevered return

15. I refuse to tell my thoughts, fearing betrayal
Lest my confidante one day act untrue

16. I am restless remembering a life now lost
For I know not how a trusted friend can disown

17. I who honor pledges of love and loyalty
Am worthy of faithfulness, ever known

18. Though a flash of lightning illuminates the night
My streaming tears flow down my cheeks stung

19. A dove laments from the branch of an arar tree
Her weeping reveals my pain among men

20. When the clouds deny their rain, my sorrow
Helps feed my passion in the morn's clear sun

21. The branches call doves at dusk, but what heart
Failed to yearn when called by the boughs?

22. Had my loved ones kept their vows and not strayed
Restless vigilance would not have plagued this wounded heart

23. Had they been just and granted me my youth
Never would I have refused, always yours

24. O beloved ones, you promised to return
Betrayal wounds, while promises are open sores

25. When I return, I shall complain of your abandonment
My lament will teach even rock to bend

26. When I say this absence is prolonged, hope
Gallops my steed faster than any dune

27. But when you are far, my stratagems collapse
Separation is certain, reunion a boon

28. In your presence or your absence alike
You dwell just below my breastbone, deep within

29. I swear by you I cannot forget what we promised
The oath of fidelity has not proved false, has not been vain

30. I am transfixed by passion whenever the doves
Begin their song in the branches, once again

31. How can one who loves consider breaking trust?
For him love is sacred law, youthful passion, faith

32. Two who are lovesick weep when conversation
Turns to intimacy — all words turn into pain

33. They sympathize with the naïve antelope, while around it
Lions lurk, spears thirsty, in their bloody den

34. One is wounded by the glances of the beloved's eyes
Another by her swaying gait, her shape so fine