1. I forgave the days for the sin of parting,
When I escaped from bidding them farewell with an embrace.

2. I did not forget them, nor they me, during a halt,
Like honey and ginger at the time of tasting.

3. I mixed in it the tears of their farewell,
When the distance was brought near at the arrival of separation.

4. They departed while my heart was among their groans,
So let them chant it among those comrades.

5. No welcome to the lightning unless
It waters the high grounds of Al Burāq.

6. Where the white domes are pitched,
Guarded by night patrols and white fine linen.

7. Bearing amidst them a maiden,
Whose load makes the heart unbearable.

8. A visionary smiling from a smiled one,
As if it was made of pearls from her.

9. She has a complexion from the dusk of night,
Or blood shed with a glance from her.

10. Weak in glance and waist, so neither
This amorous glance nor that slim waist bear.

11. She wandered about the dunes with her trains,
And competed the full moon with defiance.

12. She sent a twig that became colored in the morning,
Like the mark of one deprived of meeting her.

13. She brought the dawn back a night,
Until I imagined my morning was a relapse.

14. The dwellings of the living were watered at the curve,
From the torrents of affection or the flowing tears.

15. How many nights fevered I shortened,
With a kiss and embrace.

16. The night did not don its darkness,
Until the dawn clothed it with a porch.

17. So its stars tossed about complaining,
Some to others, of the agony of parting.

18. But the Pleiades intend to lay their heads,
Galloping westward with the race of the excellent horses.

19. And the eagle of the stars flew after,
The raven of darkness, seeking to catch up.

20. And the dawn woke up after the remote journey,
Like one who recovered from a swoon.

21. And the sailor repeated his pining,
Until we reckoned him a comrade of yearning.

22. In a garden its branches taught,
The people of passion how is the embrace.

23. The morning breeze blew him in the early darkness,
So the trees leaned, stalk after stalk.

24. Those were nights, that after
I praised, living was hard with the agony of parting.