1. Who will care for a meaning whose elegance in it
Would not have been complete had its pact been true?

2. The words took my heart captive with their melody,
Seductive its utterance, compelling its logic.

3. I await Time to be heedless of hindering me,
As though stealing from the days their guard of it.

4. O its beauty! You know the excess of its disdain—
Why, then, did you command people’s hearts to love it?

5. By God, o closed-eyed one, have mercy on one
Whose constant care did not cease to torment him.

6.
Renewing my tryst, violating it,

7. Baring my concealment, disclosing it.
He did not grudge me tears the day we parted; will he,

8. If he expects from you a union, fulfill it?
O taker of my heart, give it back to my body,

9. Or beware of God in it, lest you destroy it!
I do not complain of you for a passion,

10. Wherewith you single out my heart, welling the tears in my eyes.
For I have some patience I take refuge in,

11. Which the palms of regret rend when they shred it.
O Lord, my heart is lost in loving him—