1. You draw near to me and yet recoil at your call
And flee if I approach to meet you

2. You babble unintelligibly, though I do not know
What you say when your weeping troubles me

3. Woe to you, O raven of separation! What is
Behind you that has befallen you?

4. You mention troubles in your elegy
And dismiss them when I seek release

5. You ask for my tears by the Nile
As if its flooding were not enough to water you

6. You gesture northward in agitation
So the south grows dark for me at your call

7. You have tarried, woe to you, wandering,
To tell me of lightning flashes and thunder

8. Yet we are the lightning, served in our time
By which your jesting now makes us laugh

9. You have made the branches in my eyes
A prison I cannot bear to stir in

10. As if their branches were a brutal night
Enshrouding and bewildering me

11. While my pact with the turtledove protected me
Flirting with me in your despite

12. Yet you took her place, most wretched substitute,
Most wicked companion, stumbling in your step

13. You point to the turtledove, though she lies slain
By the talon of a swooping foe who set his trap

14. Wounded, her reason took flight in grief
More wretched than your weeping

15. Unless, O man of purpose, an arrow from you
Melted our hearts when you took aim

16. So I am not, O Suleiman, sound of mind
When I stand awestruck at what you have unleashed

17. A stranger, you have maddened a stranger
In a house from which you have deprived yourself of clarity

18. Fate has now turned on you, though long you rode high
Taking the most precious thing from your riches

19. It fled perfidiously with the rose of your youth
Concealing the beloved who stole your passion

20. She was a rose without thorns
Yet thorns became grief in your concerns

21. Maha of Damascus, where have you buried her
In the land of the Russians, with no release?

22. I see Lebanon calling to her longingly
For a valley in Hama where she was protected

23. But there is no hope, no answer
Except the echo's return, so shorten your wailing

24. Show fortitude and seek God's help to revive
A heart whose only wish was to meet you

25. Do not in weakness fall before fate
For with it you have long grappled

26. This life is but delusion, in which
Men blunder about, tangled together

27. So be steadfast in truth and wise guidance
Let not misguidance rise above your prudence