1. Greetings to those dwellings and their people,
And whoever settled there, resident or passerby.

2. I fell for the love of tranquil homes,
Leaving my heart between ardour and yearning.

3. I sent out glances like arrows at the slender waists,
Then my tears flowed like the tears of gazelles.

4. Don’t you see me pale-faced, my eyelids shooting arrows,
Counting the stars of night behind the veils?

5. My heart was struck by the arrow of a glance and it kept on
Enduring the passions of an affectionate lover.

6. So cure me with a glance at the night’s start
With which I passed a lengthy night of vigil.

7. They emerged from the homes, then entered them,
Casting my heart amidst a throng of beauties.

8. I am the passionate urbanite whom desire
For their love stripped bare before the smiling ones.

9. So go easy on this heart O people, for it passed
Its prime with every free and wedded beauty.

10. I swear by the All-Merciful, Maker of her beauty,
A glance from the slumberous one afflicted this heart.

11. So who will convey on my behalf when I’m absent
About her abundant love among those beauties?

12. Love made me crazed, so I am not to blame,
And the heart's madman is not safe from it.

13. If you ask about my truthfulness of passion,
I am honest - I am no betrayer of troth.

14. I became distracted with her after a day and night,
So cease from asking with those suspicions.

15. If the desert came between us
And beyond it rivers amid settlements,

16. I would cross it heedless of ruin
To befall us from other than those homes.