1. As if the reproach of the one I love on his cheek
Is his consent, though it bears some marks of his rejection

2. Graceful, languid, large-eyed, perfect
The troops of passion beneath the banner of his purpose

3. He burdens his cheeks with the like of what
He burdens the heart of his slave with the weight of passion

4. A stream surges beneath the branch of his stature
And that snake, his curling hair, is dark for his roses

5. He has charge of the questions of connection and separation his coquetry
So the expanse of the waist is narrow for his belt’s bond

6. If from his cheeks comes fire whose smoke
Is in his apple cheeks, then gardens beneath his coldness

7. So do not seek the fulfillment of the promise of his eyelids
For in it is weakness; seek his failure to keep his word

8. If he inclines to failure, I ransom him with my wealth
To agree to kill the lover with his effort

9. So I fell by the excellence of prosody in it and he said to me
“You learned it from the prosody of my mouth and its knots”

10. And when he saw my blood-tears he thought his cheek
Pretended for my tears and so took on the color of roses

11. If only my heart possessed the hardness of his heart
I would have been distracted, but it possessed the softness of his cheek

12. And I presented my tears as a bribe, and they were pearls
But he did not give generously! Would that he had given his favor!

13. O our loved ones, are you not our goal and destination?
Does a youth turn away from his comfort and aim?

14. You have taken over both my heart and my sight
And how the Master has decreed the possession of His servant!

15. So if I say, “What is Damascus? Egypt?” then the Pure One
Sees nearness in Oneness without any distance