1. They don first the night to its end
Draining the youths’ blood

2. Dancing on their vigor
This was a lad lured

3. By charms and his cheeks’ bloom
Dew floated over his dreams and his prime

4. Wildflowers would get drunk on his fragrance at dusk
And the mountain tops when they saw him would say “how lofty his heights”

5. What has time done to him today? You’d know not what it has done
As for beauty, it no longer remains for you to recognize his blood

6. And how often have I heard roses deny him and ask “who is he?”
Dawn has come to know the whole world but him

7. Two eras—one of a sincere love that died in its first days
And one raging in my blood and drying in my cup

8. I know not who his Arab mother is nor who his father is
A sea of doubts, mirror to the horrors of life

9. Its small pebbles and its banks inspired him
Do not bridle love—leave it to roam freely in its plateau

10. Leave it be—a mother owns her child as no other owns him
For her bed are his writhings and for her pillows his pillows

11. The women of this age—if they love they kiss their lips
As for the hearts of female lovers, they are burnt embers and ashes