1. I remember by the door a playful gazelle
And a soft, delicate life, pure

2. And a time when we plucked ripe living
Whose fringes overflowed with joy

3. The tails of amusement we wore
And clothed ourselves in cheerful, warbling youth

4. In the valley of Tihama a valley flows
Radiating light and bearing maidens

5. When a noble's trailing robe
Touches it, scent bursts forth abundantly

6. A gentle, languid breeze, shady shade
Trickling water and a rainy meadow

7. Where branch embraces branch
And stream strikes against stream

8. As the leaves loudly sing
Like David chanting the Psalms

9. And the faintness of the breeze's illness
In the branches' motions, weakness,

10. And with the birds above the branches
The wind frolics and mocks gravity

11. Barely touching the ground
Or barely touching the horizon

12. Water swimming on its surface
Meandering through each valley changed

13. If not for its pebbles' grip
It would, from lightness, fly

14. When it winds through the gardens
You'd think clasped waists and embraced forms

15. There life's essence I left behind
And buried my bliss and delight

16. In Rome I endured the long nights
Though before they were short

17. I charged my eyes with watching the stars
After I used to herd livestock

18. Hind wastes the exuberance of youth
Gazing, the shy gazelle shies away

19. She came to me, her tears overflowing
Grief, her eyelids quivering and weak

20. If they had quivered from
Floodwaters I'd have stopped their flow

21. She shook when she felt the specter
Of parting, whether together or travelling

22. Glory was pleased I wouldn't stay
While parting was miserly to let her leave

23. I wanted to console you, my darling, is there
Anything apart from consolation to soothe the bitter pain?

24. She replied, her voice faint
And turned away, despondent

25. Her mouth provisioned me with what
I learned to compose poetry from

26. Necklaces the maids desire if only
To adorn their necks brought as gifts

27. Breeze of the dawn, if you pass by
A perfumed beloved, greet her from me

28. Be gentle, though you lack nothing
That you should haggle for gentleness or pay for it

29. So convey from me - though to her
My salutations are plenty

30. Describe what's in my heart - that I
See you know the heart's afflictions well

31. My friend, one whose era's fate
Is stingy has desired the impossible

32. Why trouble yourself with high hopes,
Long life, yet short?

33. So from this door to that door
You hope for a prince yet fear a minister

34. And foolishly blame fate though is it
Proper to blame destiny you made prisoner?

35. What can a man expect to settle
Whose years the fickle stars confused?

36. A youth whom fate's halves have tested,
Sometimes blaming, other times helping,

37. Walking empty valleys, wading muddy ones,
Opening to him evil and good

38. He found the world's harvest whatever
Floods of delusion pour upon him

39. And when he doesn't settle on a state
Be a shepherd or become Zadashir

40. He who won't make do with contentment
Though he wears a crown lives poor