1. How much carving in my side, and sorrow in my body,
Will the days not satisfy with what they have taken from me?

2. It patches together what it has torn apart in me,
And settles what it has reaped from me with what it reaps.

3. I show it my scars so that it may have mercy, and complain
To it but it does not shelter with an eye or ear.

4. I appeal to it with tears while it is cold-hearted,
And counter its demons with protective charms.

5. It plucks the feathers from my wing one by one,
And frees branch after branch from my boughs.

6. Wounded, yet I did not wipe my hands of its equal,
Battered, yet I did not shake it off as worthless.

7. It is as if I was ordered to do naught but endure it,
And never found refuge from evil.

8. I endured your abandonment when companionship became disgrace,
And feared you when safety made me complacent.

9. You are beautiful in face and stature,
Yet betrayal distorts beauty.

10. I heeded the advice of prudence regarding you though my desire
Inclined towards the counsel of subservience and weakness.

11. I am opposed and my cheeks are secretly struck
With arrows that stealthily pierce souls without permission.

12. When I shield myself from its arrows with my skin,
I feel them pierce the skin of my bosom or back.

13. I know that if I delay in affection,
I will soon be lowered into a grave I dug myself.

14. Had I been angry I would have perished sighing,
Had I been calm my pillar would have leaned on my pillar.

15. Does the carrier of his belongings know
The terrible harm - I wish he had not told me!

16. He gave condolences then handed me a letter,
I opened its seal and it undid the ties of my eyelids.

17. I started it at dawn and ended it with weeping eyes
At dusk, while the day had shone bright.

18. It sufficed to mention the name of my glory and that fate had killed him,
While my soul meant that if only he knew who laments him!

19. My friend, when a friend is unwell and a sincere companion,
When the young man tires of companionship and separation.

20. I was devastated - his features withdrew and passion
Aged, though merit was still blossoming and youth still fresh.

21. Just as he was ready to achieve what he desired,
And the testimonies of love and suspicion were verified,

22. I imagined him shooting gazelles while his judgement aimed
True though the tips of the arrowheads did not shoot true.

23. To opponents he would consult foolishness about me
While the affectionate would pretend to be kind and flatter me.

24. To the resentful slanderer he would restrain his sharpness
If he wavered about me, unlike the frank and open.

25. He stood up to the burden I loaded him with, sturdy,
Light of saddle, perfect in flank and chest.

26. And when he mastered it completely,
He was adorned with success however difficult the art.

27. So that when I asked fate for his like,
I sought the birth of the infertile from open wombs.

28. My frequenting him distracted me from the good I saw,
And my delight in him revealed the goodness I gathered.

29. I did not know that death was lying in wait for me in him,
To ruin what I built and destroy what I cultivated.

30. O Abu Qasim, if only you could hear
My passion in my voice and pleasure in my tune,

31. In what manner does my song pursue you
And what valley do I lead it to you in?

32. Can the envoys convey the news of one deceased,
So I approach the journey and draw near?

33. I awaited a day of meeting you that would save me
The ripe fruits of return from its delicate branch.

34. I distracted my eyes from you with promises and wishes,
Like a captive postponing in hope of freedom.

35. It is as if the fledglings between my wings
Had settled while their mothers flew from the nest.

36. Fate envied me you and did not leave
Your descent guided by a rope or chain.

37. You were neither the vanguard of the riders, a forefront
For my eyes, nor the last remnant of the convoy.

38. Distance, with no kinship after it, separated you -
The distance of one whose rope is cut off.

39. A neighbor of people who cannot be neighbors -
They came close under shade and shelter.

40. Separated by the destruction of intimacy as if their graves
Were camel litters in the open desert with buried corpses.

41. Remote from the meadows of life their meeting,
Even if they drew near in homes and settlements.

42. A stranger thawing amidst his family’s walls,
The barrenness of the desert in the luxury of cities.

43. My excuse changed from the mouths of the Tigris
From murmured laments to stagnant, turbid water.

44. I drank while my tears mixed with its water,
And they did not separate in saltiness and muddiness.

45. I clasped the palm of a deceitful wave,
Indifferent to blaming whether cheap or lavish.

46. You drank it until the drinking became ardent craving,
And courted it till you sank into loss.

47. I did not spare the river banks asking echoes,
Nor did the floating of the sea escape reprimand.

48. It flowed with filth after your day, and harm,
And was only mentioned with disgrace and curses.

49. Its shores narrowed and filled up
With boats groaning under the loads and ships.

50. If only the mind knew how you rode it
Trusting in the smoothness of its deceptive surface!

51. You were not one whose reason was eaten by recklessness,
Nor a prey to weakness in my view or judgment.

52. I blamed you for boldness, preferring praise
For cowardice over you, had you been cowardly.

53. Valiant men stood up stretching out their palms
Defending you with blows and stabs.

54. I censured them, flaming sparks their wounds
Sprinkling the crimson blood on their coats.

55. Their tightly-strung bows clash against bows
Shooting rocks at the fortress.

56. But I complain of you - none is more honorable
To spill blood defending you or eyelid.

57. He is the bereaved eagle swooping down on his son
On the summit, the hyena digging at the lair,

58. What lies between the waistband and the young man's waist
With no restraint to forbid or deter to restrain.

59. He climbed as high as a serpent sure of its venom
And they deemed no sorcery or soothsayer could heal.

60. I dislike life without you - it is
A ruin where neither singer benefits nor nourishes.

61. I roam and no gentle Branch has gained
And complain but no beautiful one can fulfill.

62. It is as if I never looked for shade in a refuge
Except you, nor hastened on land but to your basin.

63. My hand was not stretched out and my eye did not behold me,
My sword was blunted through the eyelids’ chink.

64. So I came to shoot arrows randomly at the foe,
Ineptly with the arrow, and harmlessly with injury.

65. And how you slipped from me when I paused amidst enviers
Between them and me, and I grew tired, so I told you to guide me.

66. I prepared your innocence for it, so you were
A brother to me in it, as if you were my son.

67. If I said: O soul, be comforted in seclusion,
O liver, sigh for a home, sigh!

68. The days have passed since I sold the worlds, not ignorant
Of my profit, and isolated him, making no exception.

69. I bent aside and left passion for him and sorrow -
So your death does not wear away while my life remains.

70. It is as if I hoarded treasure from you for my destitution
At losing you, and invested the joy you brought in my grief.

71. Whether the dust was given good news or sighed.
The wicked earth is sweetened by you,

72. And would praise you if it sensed as I praise.
The trusted depositee, pure of treason, visits you,

73. A friend unaffected by the excess of grief and separation.
A sheltering cloud as if its darkness

74. Is the setting of gazelles or glimpses of ostriches.
When a land undulates with lowness and height,

75. It looms tall, exchanging the plain for slopes.
The hardships aligned for you, for after it there are no

76. Tracts for them in possession or storage.
It pours and I weep constantly, so if it clears up

77. Entrust it to my tear and depend on my eyelid.