برغبةٍ لو إلى ربي دعوت بها

لكان ذنبي عند اللَه مغفورا

Had I prayed to my Lord with yearning

With a yearning that, had I prayed to my Lord with it,

My sins before God would have been forgiven

my sins before God would surely have been forgiven.

ولو دعوت بها أسد الفلا لغدا

اضرارها عن جميع الناس مقصورا

And had I prayed for the lion of nobility

And had I called with it upon the lions of the wilderness,

Its harm confined from all the people

their harm would have been withheld from all of humankind.

فجاد باللثم لي من بعد منعته

فاهتاج من لوعتي ما كان مغمورا

So it was generous with sweetness after denying it from me

He generously granted me a kiss after his long refusal,

Thus my burning anguish which was not extinguished boiled over

and what had lain buried of my burning passion was stirred anew,

كشارب الماء كي يطفي الغليل به

فغص فانصاع في الأجداث مقبورا

Like one who drinks water to quench his thirst with it

Like one who drinks water to quench his burning thirst,

But choked and spilled forth buried in intestines

only to choke on it and perish, laid down in the grave.