1. O friend, let me be, for I am troubled,
My love for Salma, yet leaving her amazed me,

2. I avoided what I love to see,
By God, I desire yet abstain,

3. I left the home of the beloved out of fear of the eye,
Yet my soul yearns for it and trembles,

4. I watch the self in life and am certain,
That in leaving it I grieve,

5. By God, when she is remembered I have naught,
Save shedding tears and turmoil,

6. She increased beyond people in aloofness, though she knows,
I love her and pine,

7. She draws away to comfort herself, and if she draws near, she is stingy,
The aloofness of the stingy and the closeness are the same,

8. O priest of Egypt, will you tell me,
Why does my heart ache when she is recalled?

9. If it is sorcery, I called an exorcist,
If it was illness, bitterness was enough,

10. I and those whose companions have afflicted them,
Disheveled, behind her like tied captives,

11. I did not come to Salma willingly for her to make me,
A sacrifice, but nobility made me comply,

12. I emptied my heart for her to dwell it,
For a time, yet in it were paths for her,

13. While being told leave her be, though I had bound,
My soul to hers, so there is no fleeing,

14. Now, when the storytellers stood with us,
And the Arabs sang of our love,

15. I turn my soul from her, though it has shut,
Alas the echo, I pine,

16. O Salm, do you remember our gathering,
Those days when my head was like grapes,

17. When we in play saw no one,
Criticize us and our matter was play,

18. O Salm be generous with what you saw for us,
None other than you has more claim over me,

19. A companion guaranteed me and I guaranteed for him,
My soul to please him, so he began to blaze,

20. He approved the injustice as sweet, so it amazed him,
Though injustice is sweet as if he tried it,

21. I turned away from him, though forbearance is my nature,
Not mine are rebuke and clamor,

22. O Salm, you are the love when people bear witness,
And you are the love when they depart,

23. Return from a lapse I was ignorant of,
Not every sin clings to the youth,

24. You wronged me, and love is reciprocal,
Measure for measure, so how can we accompany?

25. Do not feel safe from an unjust darkness,
Taking its Lord, and time keeps changing,

26. So satisfy with the likes of what you did to us,
Each soul milks from its palms,