1. Meeting you brought separation upon me
And nearness increased nothing but yearning

2. You concealed from me the gift of affection
So I gave it acceptance and friendship

3. And I was excessive in glad tidings until you thought
I laid therein hypocrisy

4. Far be it from you to be accused in absence
So how could presence contain companionship

5. And the chief was with this brotherhood
One day we deemed a cup of wine loathsome

6. We slaughtered enemies upon his chest
For God’s sake, what blood he spilled!

7. We were delighted by his pleasures, and the drunkard
Wraps his robe and loosens his belt

8. And the garment of darkness slips from the dawn
And the moon takes off its vestments

9. And I imagined him in the sky as
The glance of an eye that met the Buraq

10. Splitting the moist night into strands
Of dewy breezes of thin, soft silk

11. God watered an epoch, and we loved each other from the start
So we thanked Iraq

12. And I still wonder at his keeping us close
Until we forgot separation

13. Do you seek vengeance on my body through distance?
Was the seller not given embrace from you?