لمعناي قلبي نحوكم أبدا يصبو — العفيف التلمساني

For my inward essence, my heart forever yearns toward you.

And within me is longing for you, to which my whole being is prey.

And being despoiled for your sake has always been your due;

And in love of you, O my masters, despoiling is required.

Your description has become beauty's very essence; so your sun—

Through you, from you, in you—has the East and the West.

Longings stir it toward your beauty,

Then that majesty and the veils restrain it.

So no stillness envelops it, nor does it see

A path; thus it grew bewildered and revolved, never straying.

It revolves at a distance from the center where

You are, since your very person was the pole.

So if the distances were measured from every side,

They would be equal, so neither distance nor nearness is sought.