1. Alas for him sleepless all night long, love-stricken,
And for a lover true, bound fast to the trysting place;

2. They said of him: “A sickness seized his heart
Of Jinn or magic from spell-casting hands.”

3. It is not so, but only love of a cheek that chanced,
In passing, to slay me with a furtive glance

4. My fantasy enraptured by love’s agony,
Like the dawning sun in high clouds blazing red.

5. ’Twas as if the beauties thronging round had cast
Their necklaces about her neck, the queen of all;

6. I stole from my friends a glance at an unveiled maid
Who hid behind no veiling scarves her charms.

7. One dawn, as they paced in the midst, a sprig of sweet basil
Wavered towards them where love’s bough extravagant grows.

8. They walked a bowshot’s length and suddenly there was cast
Prone on the earth one whom all strength had left.

9. Their gait weighed down by something that, had it been gained,
Would suffice them against the vigilant spies of dawn.

10. And when morning was relieved by morning from sleep,
They swayed towards it like branches full of fruit weigh down.

11. Now hiding her from view, and now companioning her,
Till they had passed beyond my sight, nor far nor near,

12. When she complained of heat and dust while relatives and friends
Drew near, and she was wearied of roaming through the pastures,

13. They cast a cloak about her and then concealed her with
A tent of fresh-hued brocade with many ties and bands,

14. To hide her from sun, spy, wind, and envious eye,
As lamps in mosques are hidden behind coloured glass.

15. Fearing for her some blemish or evil eye of hater—
An impious Fatimah or a watchful partisan.

16. O Fatimah, the soul does hide what it would keep
From love and show the like of it in open sight!

17. Nor have I any friend in whom to confide—
Head suffering more than any couch with pillows piled—

18. Save one supine who never knew what ailed me though
My wretched plight and sleeplessness were plain to see.

19. My soul, you blame what owes you no fidelity.
What fault in one fated ere death would claim

20. For me from those who gather when day breaks
To be like one asleep, his head upon no pillow laid,

21. My eyes filled only with vain dreams of you,
Vain as any sleeper’s that the day will dissipate.

22. Yet I alone endure apart from you the rigours of battl
So what reward falls to him who has no battlefield?

23. The anguish is enough for the lover of her
Whose promises of meeting are the mirage void.

24. The pointing of some people whose loose sleeves
Were better knotted tight increased my suffering.

25. To whom does he make this plain? Who else feels passion
But the slanderer rebuking me and foes forbidding my desire?

26. And for the noble youth isn’t it enough to bear
The grief for her he loves whose pledge is ever false?

27. She complained of the length of my estrangement though
In her heart she knew my ardour hers alone,

28. Yet fear makes me avoid all eyes and keep guard
Against both neighbour and guarded parent;

29. One eve, as I drew near, she moaned sadly for my long absence
And was not moved within as I was, her sister, mother, all!

30. I swear had they assessed the flame which filled my heart
They would have known I surpassed th’ impassioned zealot;

31. I held back from all but her when others sought me
And my supplications bowed only at her door;

32. Hearing at my side some ode of love declaimed
I quivered while around her neither parent shook.

33. Echoes from my words of love for her would pass
Through me, like spells pronounced again and yet again;

34. As if my soul, alert against me, laid cunning siege
And then relinquished me to wake the dawn once more,

35. So composing poetry my rapture became
An amulet about my neck preserving from all harm,

36. As when one uncovers in great haste an asp
While round him throng the troops of enemies and lions:

37. Thus was I because of this one or that before her,
And after them death’s breathing growing loud and near:

38. Just so, from making verses have I gained only
What plotted I against the cunning plotter!