1. Let me die of love, and no reproach afflict me,
For yearning after loved ones is no shame.

2. Had you known desire, you'd not deny the weeping
Of one whose soul is seared by passion's flame.

3. Lower your gaze before the absence hurts me;
I've heeded wisdom none revealed or spoke.

4. A dog once barked before her dwelling's portal;
Should I be frightened then by dogs that croak?

5. My twisted viscera will give me no respite,
No peace within my heart, my frame, my self.

6. The gentle breeze delights when blowing southward;
But you are to me a wind of discontent.

7. No sound I hear except a maid calling
To lion she so loves, her soul on fire.

8. As though her plea my passion were extracting,
A mountain formed of flames, yet without pyre.

9. O beautiful the knolls supple and beauteous!
Would that each knoll were like a supple thigh!

10. Your passing smile no love-desire sparked me,
Like lightning's gleam, that flashes from the sky.

11. As if within her eyes resides a charm, that snares,
When she but glances, binding spells that daze.

12. Her eye gives joy, and meets the absent sun
As though created of a lamp's pure rays.

13. My hopes in her each eve I place, but morning
Finds her betraying all I hoped to gain.

14. Can one of noble ways fail and abandon
What good he's promised souls who cry in pain?

15. My friend reproves me for my love of her
Who opened wide the door of youth for me.

16. She deeply drank of love and was not sated
Till I could swallow not a sip but sea.

17. She came to me with toothpick, feigning
To teach me how it tasted - what her aim.

18. But when she put it in her mouth, its flavor
Was sweet as honey mixed with scent of camphor.

19. I kissed what her lips touched, and then exclaimed:
Would that I were this toothpick in her mouth!

20. Say to my soul: return now to my body,
Or argue me with glances that explain.

21. Caprice refrains from inciting me, but leaves me
Prey at dawn to the madness love ordains.