1. Alas! Who excuses the soul for blaming her
For loving in ignorance? Alas! Who excuses her?

2. I remembered days when her joy turned away
So tears flowed from my eyes at that moment.

3. I spend the night as if I were appointed over the stars
Turning my eyelids over them and directing them.

4. As if the daughters of the bier had stretched out their palms
And a beggar had extended his palm to beg from them.

5. As if the Pleiades in the darkness and their gathering
Were a flock of birds startled by their eagles

6. Hunting them. The vulture that was aiming for them
Had no pots set against them.

7. Oh, what a night whose star disappeared
When fate vanished in it and its shortness lengthened!

8. I remembered days that passed by auspiciously
So their conversation returned to trouble my soul,

9. Nights when she who loved a prince was your beloved
And slave girl while you were her prince.

10. She was a captive in your bond whom you directed
To everyone you loved while you were her captive.

11. So days followed when she treated me spitefully,
Days of distress which enraged her jealous husband.

12. In my chest is an anguish I do not express,
Just as in her chest is an anguish she does not express.

13. The enemies caused us problems until she was separated from me
With her curtains lowered between us.

14. She had fifteen doors
That I would not visit all night long.

15. I was a topic of conversation among them when they saw me
Like an apple whose fragrance had been emitted.

16. My signals to her were my sandals’ squeaking
And the jingling of my horse’s harness warning her.

17. Whenever someone other than me came, she was veiled,
Yet she was generous and unveiled with me.

18. So I became content with little, and sometimes
I sought but the great part of it was not difficult for me.

19. It was dearer to me that my gesture to her
Be with pure intention, not to be rewarded by its performer.

20. Many days have passed since I last saw her,
Yet to me her months were like years.

21. If what I suffered for an hour from passion
Were thrown on the mountains of Radwa, it would crumble its rocks.

22. If what I suffered from passion for an hour
Were thrown at the two sides of Thabeer, it would not stand firm.

23. If when death came, I called upon her name,
My soul by my Lord’s permission would be restored by her.

24. I make excuses to myself out of fear for her
When longing is about to make her fly away.

25. And when I fear passion overcoming her,
I seek refuge for her by calling her name.

26. If days have covered you with vengeance,
Their consequence and result have passed.

27. I do something without her knowing,
Then her conscience informs her of that about me.

28. And I claimed I allowed someone other than her
An intimate union—by my life, she bloodies their necks!

29. By the Lord of death, I do not incline my visits
To other than her, neither female nor male.

30. Rather, I pretended with someone other than her
Fearing the eye that does not sleep seeing her.

31. I have many vows to meet her,
If only my vows made her vows obligatory!

32. Is there no wise advisor whom Allah guided
Who sees a scheme in this that would not harm her?