1. Is this estrangement without cause
Or his being aloof just a game?

2. Or is it his cleverness, that still
Appears and disappears like a flame?

3. The full moon is now like him -
It approaches not, though it came.

4. Eyes delighted to gaze on his charm,
He captivated all mortal fame.

5. If he promises, he does not fulfill,
For passion has its own law and aim.

6. The critic may call it untrue,
Yet to the lover it's all the same.

7. Beauty clings to him as a garment,
So he's the father of beauty and claim.

8. He's the one, whom if indulged,
Becomes wayward, travels, and will not remain.

9. He's the one whose flirtatiousness
Makes him wander veiled, not plain.

10. Everything about him is strange,
Just like passion itself, it's insane.

11. Oh nights that are past,
Will you come back again?

12. The gardens now empty for the sky,
To which they are related in vain.

13. The full moon wanders among them
With shooting stars in its train.

14. It reveals them frowning,
With a name to us dear and humane.

15. Like a bride who is veiled,
While he, beyond her, is restrained.

16. They delayed his wedding,
Though the feast was ready and ordained.

17. Or like a cheek bitten, if not
Moistened by the lips, it's profaned.

18. Or like lips, a youth did bite,
Then felt sorry, so tears he rained.

19. Or as tears with kohl mixed,
That blood, though false, they feigned.

20. Or a heart that envies,
And with jealousy ever inflamed.

21. Were I to kiss this cheek, I'd pull
Its cloak, so toward me it's strained.

22. It excites my soul to passion,
Hiding within hearts, not disdained.

23. With its blush like the wild plum
Colored red but not stained.

24. Wine plays with it whenever
It reddens, the cups it's drained.

25. Laughing with it, crying for it,
Each one by the other arraigned.

26. Who's like me, if asked,
The most literate have proclaimed -

27. A legacy of honor that surpassed
All Arabs, and gold has disdained?

28. Oh my ribs! My heart still convulses
Among you, restless and pained!

29. Eyes have tempted it,
So between them it's robbed and gained.

30. Their glances shone for it,
As magic on it drizzled and rained.

31. Many lions succumbed to eyes
Whenever those eyes disdained.

32. In their lids are arrows -
No scripts have proclaimed or ordained.

33. Woe to him whose love is not done,
And for him life not waned!

34. If rest gives him fatigue,
Then fatigue rest has profaned.