1. I have left all but piety,
So God watered my time with piety.

2. The moon of the unseen rose on my horizon,
Appearing, though to my sect a stranger.

3. My obligations were forbidden in it, as was
My practice, which to it was an innovation.

4. So if I am wrong, let me be an error,
A sin that was mine and happened.

5. Where is one who understands my words and sees
What I see of the truth of canon law?

6. The cup was filled, though no cup was here,
And the fodder overflowed, though there was no fodder.

7. On idols the pagans were bent,
The nation of fancy, increasing in greed.

8. O men of the unseen, my eyes have witnessed
Your absence like lightning when it flashes.

9. The night whose stars were you is over,
And dawn has risen above it.

10. Beyond this abode two Holy Places
My heart circumambulated and hastened to.

11. It cast the pebbles of my soul at Mina,
Drawing near it with seven traits emulated.

12. Leave no trace of me, O lightning,
The eye’s trace only increases the pain.

13. Scatter, O wind of fever, the motes
From my sun-like face, for its caller has called.

14. Motes of my departure have made me stumble.
What passion my heart felt, and passion!

15. I have a lover who from me is hidden,
Who appears not, nor do we appear together.

16. Between declaring Him transcendent and likening Him,
Is a presence that bewilders the onlooker.

17. Whenever I near Him, I am tempted
To draw closer, and He rises farther away.