1. I sat in the garden of my companion and his home
So it stirred in me what I had forgotten to remember

2. And I was served a cup of starlight in the hour of remembering him
But it could not find in the night of my worry any comfort

3. O server of the cup I drank from
Go gently, for my heart belongs to another nation

4. O horizon, if my beloved were lying next to me
My soul would not have asked you to bring forth the full moon

5. If the blackness of the nights was connected to his hair
I would have feared no dawn but his dawn

6. I remembered a rose belonging to the beloved, veiled
Its petals cast a shadow covering it

7. So I started to race my heart because of remembering him
Remembrance kills me and I kill it with patience

8. I kiss that curve thinking it the beloved's cheek
And I kiss that flower thinking it the beloved's mouth

9. How many blame me for what I have done
And how many say leave him, perhaps he has an excuse

10. Because of you, whom your departure has saddened
I found comfort in tears that prevent the eyes from being wearied

11. And from you I suffered betrayal, abandonment, and paucity
And spent on you poetry, life, and time

12. My eyes went bankrupt when they spent their tears
So my mouth flowed with tears they call poetry

13. And I left glory in Damascus to meet
Egypt, which in its beauty they preferred over Egypt

14. If I recovered in a garden where you were not
Still, I met with you only rejection and estrangement

15. If I were in Eden while you were elsewhere
In my loneliness, I would prefer to go out to the wild

16. If I were in Basra while you were not, I would not say
O Basra, do not look upon Basra