1. How I struggle in an unequal war,
And pillage the army of endurance.

2. A blood-spiller who adorns his necklace,
Able without ability.

3. My eyes fall short of the radiant
Dwellings of those enclosures,

4. Thoughts revel in them
And thoughts are exhausted by them.

5. Allure is a fading deception,
I fear not the slumber of a dormant volcano.

6. And I would slay the effeminate youth
For the young man with dormant fires.

7. Your eyes exceed them,
Exhausting the past of eyelids.

8. I am bent like a branch, swayed
By the myrtle’s east wind and intoxication.

9. Shall I be satiated from a kiss therein
Of roses, wine, and fervor?

10. If only Moses would help his lovers,
I would show him burning passion.

11. For from that sweet kiss, who can compete?
It quenches better than valley rains.

12. Your missive, recipient of passion’s testament,
Relieves the flow of my companions.

13. It has brought the water of sorrows
From my chest—pillows of sweetness.

14. It excelled the branches in waist and conversations,
And surpassed full moons in mouth and raiment.

15. Even the gazelle is outspoken by it,
So let it graze and find no contention.

16. Yours is the beauty of leadership
Over wild roses and creeks.

17. How I have aged and missed your face,
My lifeblood, this blood.

18. If you would paint, my hope would be
Your nighttime yearnings at dawn.

19. Or compose, in your beauty I would cast
Myself unto pastures of rest.

20. I would revive a soul and heal
A heart immersed in its well.

21. I love you, and love is worship,
So light me not afire.

22. I draw it near in love and it flees,
I draw it near in false dreams.

23. A stray, like a well-trained horse it frolics,
Then is overwhelmed by the bridle’s touch.

24. The warbler sang in it and jested,
Then guided it, fevered by passion.

25. By Allah, O my trained birds
Among the empty plains.

26. Beware what the necklace stirs in you,
Cast not an arrow upon my abode.