1. May the return journey be easy for the travellers
And may longing hold back the bitterly parted

2. For love is but the death of a soul when it calls
The souls of lovers are ever responsive

3. He whose heart recovered from lovesickness
Sees the views of censurers as right

4. May God protect a people frightened by their absence
A heart protected by its veil from its ardour

5. We crossed over; how many a tear in their dwellings
Flows, and a soul melts with yearning

6. And a singing girl not yet twenty pilgrimages
I say to her words that to her are rewarding

7. On you is an alms so let that be our union
For you are twenty and that is the minimum

8. My desire is only acceptance and a kiss
My purpose only goodwill and embracing

9. I was like one who invokes protection with charms
Hoping a mirage will quench his thirst

10. I recalled a time no pleasure made me forget
No drink drew my heart from its passion

11. And make pilgrimage to the tavern of comfort and rest
While the Kaaba revolves and contracts are dissolved

12. And my excessive love for the old woman who became
A bride revolving while contracts are dissolved

13. It restores the mind’s youth, grey hair and dark locks
And from it youth returns to the aged

14. When they kill it with temperament, it smiles
Like one drinking it, eased though injured

15. How strange that drinking it makes us
Devils who corrupt people, yet it is a falling star

16. A noble youth shone with virtuous traits
As rare in generosity as repelling vice

17. Loyal to his promises, he fulfilled them
As far from treachery as he was from wrong

18. His wealth tortured him and made
The sources of his generosity all torture

19. His white, beautiful hands were generous with which
A hand that reckons not in giving

20. His gifts free souls, the least being
When they clasp the whiteness of palms

21. His views make resolves quake in rage
If blood be the only dye

22. So every book of his is a bejewelled sword
That delights when smelled, and inspires awe

23. His meanings behead necks, so he has become
One I imagine whose book is a blade

24. Wondrous books of most perilous ideas
They are lent, not flawed so none dispraise

25. May a feast, if held, make you its feast
If absent, a refuge sought from you

26. At it your sacrifices a jealous hypocrite
Your pilgrimage a raid on foes, war

27. You have never ceased to enrich every seeker
No seeker ever wearied of seeking you

28. When the prayer caller invokes, saying ‘bless
Him You have granted it,’ the prayer is answered