1. O guide of the cavalry, go gently, for you are to blame
If you miss the path when the horses bolt ahead

2. O breeze of yearning that stirred my rapture
And enthralled me and my friends and companions

3. It swayed my head, so I could not restrain my hands
From my pockets, hems, and saddlebags

4. I hid it from the caravan until my rapture overflowed in me
Its influence spread during my concealment

5. Is it the intoxication of wine or memories that stir me
Of my family, friends, and homeland?

6. For God's sake, be gentle with my heart, lest it flutter with joy,
And do not reveal my love to the neighbors

7. I have debts to the days that guarantee
Their payment soon after much suffering

8. O morning breeze, soaked in fragrance
Its breaths like musk and ambergris breezes

9. Pass by the melodious garden galloping
With its fragrance of spirit and basil

10. Court the roses whose robes
Are stained by the tears of rain, humbly beseeching

11. Until you gather from the fragrance and perfume
A gentle breeze of different scents and colors

12. Kiss the ground if you reach it at dawn
And convey my greetings to my family and neighbors

13. Tell them that after you the sweetness of life
Has changed into sorrow and woes

14. Since you left, sleep has abandoned my eyelids
So they no longer taste the lees of slumber

15. I spent the night seeking aid against my fate
With only my tears to assist me

16. I yearn from the cliffs of Buwaan for my homeland
Yet how far Buwaan's cliffs are from Joh's cliffs!

17. Many nights in Joh my lids lost sleep
Gazing at the lightning on the vine trellises

18. When the ringdoves coo, the nightingales respond
With laments echoing the desert's bitterness

19. If lightning flashes for the maidens
They glance towards its gleam, enchanting the gazelles

20. They watch for the return of the rebel she-camel
Obedient to the glory of adornments and harnesses

21. Sighing with passion, his breath trains
His ribs, rising with gentle modulations

22. He chases sleep all night from sleepy eyes
Though his people are drowning in a flood

23. The nights sweat him though his will is firm
And the mirages beckon though he is steadfast

24. As if he were a well-knit coat in the cloak of night
Safe from its looseness by his tightness

25. Love does not make him neglect to cut the ropes from the camel litter
Nor does fear make his memory avoid perdition

26. As if the sweetness of your love protects him
The tranquility of sleep in his eyelids and teeth

27. My friend, pass the cup on from one sated
With the cups of sorrow and conviviality

28. Let us be certain that my heart is lost between you
So help me even with just a few words

29. Lend me a tear in which I can rest
If you are not inclined to help and be kind

30. Convey to a gazelle whose dwelling is in Joh,
In the shade of bliss but refusing the shade of trellises,

31. Refusing the meadows of the shaded garden, scornful,
Except to the limbs of lions and knights

32. When I thought I had driven her away, she fled
Breaking the necklace of my friendship and yard

33. She took a piece of my heart with her and hurried away
Fiercely into the unknown wilderness

34. Would that you had sent us a shadow to gather
The dispersed ashes darkened by night

35. You feared visiting the treachery of our tears
So you did not perceive shedding tears amidst treacheries

36. Or has a hand that spent the night traveling grasped their forelocks?
They flutter from it, clutched between bosoms

37. On a night of anguish, it kept embracing me
Between the coolness of chastity that continued to forbid me

38. It would erase the henna from its hands upon my eyelids while I saw
That no one has the right to kiss the ruby lips

39. And behind the ruby lips how much sweetness
Of delicious wine where streams for the thirsty flow!

40. We spent the night while the breeze of the quarter pulled us
When we embraced, jealousies pulled us apart

41. So we remained under the wing of night tangled
In embraces without intending betrayal

42. Until dawn broke and the perfume and dew denounced us
And the ornament proved what we had said clearly

43. Wear consolation for consolation, for through it
Hardship is transformed into compliance with disobedience

44. Do not worry about the vicissitudes of fate
Fate is an ogre, fickle in nature

45. One day is joy, the next sorrow
Both ephemeral, their shadows fleeting