1. How the lightning blazed when it flashed,
Illuminating the sand dunes in the valley of Ghada.

2. The abode of love - where is the abode of love?
It scorched my patience and vanished.

3. With an abode in my heart are its dwellings,
Between the sanctuary of the sands and Al-Ada.

4. The malady that afflicted me did not touch him,
Though he was cured while I still ailed.

5. Nor does he endure a pitch-black night,
Even if the full moon rose within it, it would illuminate.

6. To the contented one, the taste of sorrow seems trivial.
Indeed, the watchful youth's eyes have not closed in sleep.

7. It is not for the dilatory one to seek payment,
Nor for the procrastinator to pay his debts.

8. Indeed, my creditor in the debts of passion,
Has burdened my heart and made the payment evil.

9. O rider whom boldness carries
Like the slender ostrich traversing the flatlands.

10. Fear loosened its knot, and the fear of the young man
Is a sword at the nape, bared and ready to slay.

11. Say to the beauty of the kingdom, if you come to him,
"You have darkened my life while it was still bright."

12. Wrath, that if a mountain were pelted with it,
Would slide from the mountains or diminish them.

13. And speech so bitter it degraded my honor,
If it were mixed with water it would become bitter.

14. I seek refuge in pardoning - but does one feel safe
From the hissing of the serpent when it hisses?

15. O savior of mankind, if they are stricken with drought,
And O pillar of the faith, if it shakes and totters.

16. O light, that if its brightness grows distant
We will never see a day brighter afterward.

17. Why am I twisted in anguish? It has made me sick.
While your favor has not made me sick.

18. Restlessness has worried my soul, and sorrow stretched long.
The sky darkened, and the horizon narrowed.

19. Do not let the blossoms whose growth
Was in the direction of your grace become thirsty.

20. If I have sinned - and I have no sin -
Resume your pardon, and forgive what has passed.

21. Do not destroy a branch that you have feathered.
Never would the builder of glory undo what he constructed.

22. And protect a sapling that you made grow.
Had it not been for you, it would not have reached up to grow.

23. If the world were recompensed for its honor
With you, it would not rejoice in what it gained in exchange.

24. Nor after passion, let your covenant
Be clouds that gathered and color that faded.

25. O archer whose arrows, when released from his bow,
Targeted me before they were even unleashed.

26. It decreed destruction upon my heart with its turmoil,
And I cannot bear what was decreed with fortitude.

27. How can I not weep for the intimacy of one
Whom fate turns away from me if it turns?

28. I used to hope to attain the wished-for end through him.
But today I seek nothing but contentment.