1. I wish I knew, since I repeated my glances,
Whether I'm living towards death or life.

2. O boy, when I regarded you as a body,
Or called you the spirit of beings.

3. And if I were to perish from you and myself,
I'd say: O Lord of the most perfect attributes.

4. To me, in all things, You have the face of an image,
Transcendent above any image in Your turning.

5. You are other than me in reality, even if I
Said, when I perished, that Your essence was my essence.

6. Oh, if only I had a singular One to pair with,
So my tongue could utter ecstasies.

7. In His palm we are cups of wine,
Spinning in every moment.

8. Whoever casts us outside, gets drunk on us,
Beyond everything of creation he sees.

9. Nonexistence appears through sheer existence,
Though existence can be absent through heedlessness.

10. And if He wishes, He is the most manifest thing,
And if He wishes, the most absent of the absent.

11. This is the way of appearances - they seem
Either for swift perishing or deliverance.

12. And whoever loves coquetry perishes
In languid, lethal eyes.

13. O Existence, everything but You
Is nonexistence appearing in directions.

14. If we want, we say You are I,
Since between us no past or future is.

15. And if the bodies of ignorance blame us,
We and they are alike in fixity.

16. We move in the Light toward ourselves,
While all people are in darkness.