1. O my friend, help me with my turmoil,
My night has come and would that night had not returned.

2. Yearning holds my reins and has harnessed me,
To Sulayma and her fair companions in harnessing.

3. In the palace of proud porches a maid,
Slender of waist and hips and thighs.

4. God made my love for her most pure and formed her,
Excelling the sun when it shone from behind the veils.

5. I love her mouth and her eyes and what
Wonders she confided in me - and woe to me from wonders!

6. The lover's sickness, though her spittle would cure it,
Is like fire to kindling for his remedies.

7. One who breaks a pact he made earlier -
How can he break between faith and dignity?

8. By God, I will call her and seek her
Until I die, having excused myself in seeking.

9. I said, when she turned from me with her joy,
And longing accustomed me to whispering and night vigils:

10. "O sweetest of people to embrace and visit,
Grant me a day with you and count me virtuous."

11. Lovers, their sickness is not cured
Save by meeting - so cure my heart and draw near.

12. How often you said "wondrous!" to me then blamed me,
Though I had no fault or sin in what you said.

13. Don't weary me, for I am weary
After the estrangement - the tale I was told wearies me.

14. A specter that does not disturb me calls me to die,
While a caprice of yours in earnest and in play.

15. Meet a lover protected by your memory's sleep,
As though, when he does not meet you, in flames.

16. She said: "Are you beguiling every young girl
With your sorcerous poetry, refined for nomads?"

17. "How often have you become entangled with others, then wavered!
So be ashamed of lying - no good is in lying."

18. "I met you and was seized by an illness like yours
Of jinn or dog."

19. "Where do we have you or you us
When we are in different paths, diverse in manners?"

20. "We cannot, nor can we be made to, due to excess -
So forgiveness is best over bonding anew."

21. "You are notorious among my people and companions.
My eye is too good for a neighbor or stranger from afar."

22. "If I obeyed you, humoring myself,
I would forfeit my honor - and my honor is not for forfeiting."

23. "So milk your udder dry and lick your fingers,
None can milk the teat but a bleary-eyed camel herder."

24. "Though we have shown no favor to you
In what you love, and we avoided you in discomfort,"

25. "We desire speech and preserve our ranks -
The healthy avoids the mangy."

26. "Eyes feared before our need
And startled us by turning away, and did not look."

27. "I have no rope with her I can cling to
Save kindness from bliss - and no knot."

28. "I have forgotten while my heart wanders,
As though lost to causes with her."

29. "I was absent from her but she felt no longing for my absence,
While I was present but she did not witness or be absent."

30. "I go to bed depressed while she goes to bed
Not complaining of love in bone or nerve."

31. "As if she were a stone, distant from her would-be lover -
She was harsh to me, and if I called, she did not answer."