1. On my right and on my left, love kindled its fires,
Behind me and before me, passion - how can I escape?

2. If I slip from my steadfastness because of a thing
That chanced upon me beneath my heel, what harm in that?

3. Like one who lifts his feet from the mud of the plain
Though around him spreads the land, a sea without shore.

4. Lightning flashed for me until when I said "Be generous!"
It turned away from a gloom that knows no morning.

5. O lightning that flashes and avails naught,
We know you! Seek one you can beguile!