1. Whether others fear time or dread fate,
And desire immortality,

2. I do not fear time passing
Nor dread death approaching.

3. If the vicissitudes of time glance at me,
I will extend a hand to it.

4. My resolve makes water a live coal,
And my forebearance leaves the sword blunt.

5. My excessive disdain for people is because
I see every disgrace in those unlike me.

6. My refusal accepts not that I sit still,
And never to see the whole world settled.

7. I thirst if water shows me any favor,
Even if the Milky Way were my watering place.

8. If reaching guidance required humiliation,
I would see guidance but not incline towards it.

9. While others have aged time,
But time remains young through my merit.

10. You are my slave, O time, while I
Disdain to be seen as your master.

11. Why am I content to be seen as dust?
I have an ambition the horizon cannot contain.

12. If the stars knew my status,
They would all bow towards me in prostration.

13. I see people below me in wisdom, knowledge, rank and merit,
And my generosity increased until

14. The sea dweller boiled with rage.
Many asked me but passed by, saying:

15. "How miserly, refusing to extend his hand of generosity!"
But I have a pen between my fingers -

16. if I shake it, it does not harm me not to shake it.
When it glides over my shield, it clangs -

17. for the sound of my glorification echoes.
My shield is a prayer niche, and David prostrates;

18. If he wishes, he coats the shield with an impenetrable coat of mail.
Whether fortune raises or fate lowers,

19. Success or misfortune are expected from it.
I am wakeful of all things except passion,

20. Which makes my refusal blame and remain seated.
If the union I desire does not make me happy,

21. I wish my refusal had kept silent.
It blames me without knowing - its union

22. Is higher than a star or farther than the horizon.
My love loves one who contradicts me,

23. Would that I were the contradicted outcast!
They said, "You have fallen for a flame."

24. I said, "Through it I have found guidance."
I love from it a mouth like a bud,

25. And a cheek I prostrate to in worship.
I did not stare long at that cheek, but rather

26. When I saw it I created a glance.
How many times my eyes stray there,

27. Reminding me of an old promise.
There I used to see the night white,

28. So I have come to see the dawn black.
My eyes watch for its crescent to appear,

29. So long has the fasting continued awaiting its celebration.
I passed by it and considered my composure -

30. My shame when I considered composure!
As if there were coolness in my eyes but fires in my heart,

31. They saw in that abode nothing but self-restraint.
How many times has my steed faltered there,

32. Until its neck grew accustomed to what it grew accustomed to.
That neck grew accustomed to me,

33. Making it a necklace of my tears.
It is no abode of alabaster or sanctuary,

34. But a sky when it contained a planet.
O Lord of a night in which we embraced,

35. Restoring bonds that had unraveled.
Those bonds became undone by me in the morning,

36. After so long being bound by me.
I did not make the left hand a pillow,

37. So the right hand lay pillowed.
I stripped it of its garment and clothed it

38. With my embrace, naked and bare.
He brought me close until I swooned,

39. And made me drink until I flowed to the brim.
I testified that his scent was pure honey,

40. Else I would not have testified untried.
That the Babylonian saliva of his glance -

41. Ask the afflicted one how it has bemused him!
Brimming with languid eyes, and his eyes an arch -

42. How did he shoot an arrow straight to the heart?
So do as you please, conquer me - after all,

43. You were created to make me miserable that you may be happy.