1. My heart refused but to spend the night in passion for him
Alas, no passion will find a heart to meet it

2. My heart was led captive from me by a glance from the gazelle I love
So O my heart what are you captured by and O glance what have you captured

3. I feel him make an impact but no real impact is made
A stab but no real stab, a blow but no real blow

4. They said distract yourself and ask about your beloved
So I acted as though I was absent, imagining my love

5. And I grew attached to the edge of his departure, so it seemed
He had learned from the tears of my eyelids to jump at me

6. Tears streamed from the corner of his eye
Teaching my tears in it to break the dams

7. I blamed him for his distance but he didn’t stop
So I made the separation itself the blame

8. How can I find peace after my distance from him
When I was close I suspected the nearness

9. And he said, “Are you entering the house of separation between us?”
I said “Yes” out of politeness

10. But how can I ask after love has struck
Its strangest blow, and its most barren estrangement

11. I turned away until the echo almost quenched my thirst
For the saliva of the mouth I once drank from

12. And my passion awoke one who disliked it, it only woke him
Through the breeze that blew

13. My consolation turned to the distance that came
And my patience grew up with the love that grew up

14. I have no fault but his love, and if it be
A fault, do not blame me or pardon the sin