1. I was shy lest people know whom I love
And I made the secret a source of joy

2. No slander by talebearers can undo
A love whose pillars are in a guarded heart

3. Since I devoted myself to him
I wore the garb of bliss and shed all sickness

4. An ever young beloved is my companion
An intimate since youth with silver hair

5. Neither neighbor nor homeland have I visited
With love, across the Tigris in eastern Dar

6. I came to her lost in the night and was guided
By her beautiful face brighter than the full moon

7. Before her I found no settlement
After her I settled in tranquility

8. O night! Fools prattle about you at dawn
Beautiful night! Modest even to the wise

9. Will you return in a time I can't forget?
Dawn chased away the dark troubles

10. And words that struck my hearing as she began
To bid farewell, with tears in people's eyes

11. Turn from me, leave me to their suspicions
For if asked, who can hide the truth in suspicions?

12. Spare me your rebukes whenever you visit
For you are lovelier to the eye than the ear

13. Have patience - perhaps the guide of fate will bless me
Or the promises of hope will reward me

14. The minister's generosity has never failed
To unsheathe his sword in our defense

15. By his auspicious right hand and generosity
Both hands I see stretch out with good fortune

16. I washed myself with the water they poured down
Cleansing my poverty, not my ragged clothes

17. In his hand whiteness overflows from joy
And dignity and silence and wit

18. Hearing his faint invitation brings me delight
Though he hides his passion from one in exile

19. The Feast laughs in your prosperity at a moon
While lately it wept over music

20. If days could speak, they would express
Eloquence - we lack all tune

21. Drink to an honored one, not one made old by wine
Or threadbare by affliction and blows

22. If you disdain or spurn me as I have presumed
Pardon me, though my patience is worn thin

23. I degraded my glory to profit some men
So rouse them, awake them to my degradation!

24. One such as I deserves honor and protection
When I sell myself, at least value me highly!

25. I endure time's hands twisting my grey hair
As it toys with my tears like a child with boats

26. Why wouldn't it toy with me when my manners
Are true while you brought me next to Ardashir?

27. Don't be surprised I call you from under heels
To you, daybreak! The sun sets in its maw

28. Kindness grows in ones such as me, then fails
Blame whatever you wish, you have tested me

29. The critic, savage and deaf, I address
As though addressing a wild beast in its den

30. The negligent one - the song of praise makes him tipsy
With no reward, so he accepts me and spitefully rejects me

31. I gave up my glory for purposes I steered
To them, so I alerted them to my giving while I am burdened