1. Salma demands that I love her
But when was the heart given a choice in love?

2. My dear Salma, your beauty is enchanting
But my heart will not be enchanted again

3. I suffered much and took respite from passion
Only to be afflicted with more sorrow

4. My fate denied me return to love
And my life remains coerced and controlled

5. He whom I love, his joy increases
When I cannot endure being apart from him

6. And he admires my fervor and yearning
While my hopes are dashed and my misery persists

7. Though I see none but him in all I see
Far from attainment, so I mourn and keep vigil

8. So he left me with a malady in my heart
An affliction that medicine was puzzled by

9. Such has love been to me, so if I
Am worthy of my sickness, I'm worthier of health

10. I grew old and my hair turned white
As the scent wafts through the perfumed garden

11. My soul's strength waned, though my soul stayed young
And my heart a child, though anguished, lived on

12. This age surrendered me to one
Who shows me the dawn as gloaming darkened

13. I distanced myself until no remote place
Remained, so no news of love reached me

14. I endured this life until I left behind
Both it and love, though in regret and remorse

15. I wept for them until my tears
Seemed a torrent pouring from a stream

16. Then I stemmed my tears, silently stunned
With burning embers aflame in my heart

17. My heart became like sorrow knows it
Transformed, so it would never change