1. At the mosque's gate I saw my heart's desire
And so for my heart began this fervent fire

2. Dressed for Eid in a gown of velvet
Like a peacock unfurling its feathers in show

3. I looked at her with a gaze that would
Spell my ruin, though the eyes court their undoing

4. If her eyes killed me a thousand times over
How many slain deliberately, how many in error?

5. She glided in our mosque, dragging her skirt
As she had when gracing the festivities there

6. She weakened my faith with her delicate waist
And came to pray when indulging was dear

7. Would that my heart were an altar and she a candle
Would that it were an apple, her bite leaving it bare

8. She was paradise enough, though the pious
Have paradise still when under the earth they repose

9. I followed her when she finished her prayer
Trampling my heart or widening her stride

10. I said, walk slowly, my darling, and listen
For love, you must know, gave me faith as my guide

11. Shyly, hiding her smile, she replied
Hush, no complaints on a holiday!

12. I said, your love for me is clear as day
And your heart pronounces on this, come what may

13. For you, from my eyelash, my soul hoped to leap
And many a text had a pretext for passion as title

14. If a house is far, the spirit still roams there
Whispering with kindred spirits its secrets to share