I saw in the eye of the lion the frailty of the oryx,
And I saw in the eyes of the oryx the ferocity of the lions.

And my passionate heart suffered what it suffered,
Flame of zeal that cannot be extinguished.

Doom for the one struck by a heavy-lidded beloved,
In his chest, and he beats the core of the heart.

Should he be reproached, the lover who pities life,
When he held the gazelle by its upper limbs.

I sensed in the bitterness of colocynth sweetness,
When after remoteness I tasted rejection.

What can a lover do, and they said his cure,
Is in breasts and in lips and in cheeks.

I cried with a voice that its echoes reach,
All areas of the world unbounded.

The lovesick lover your departing shadow turned away from,
Even your shadow became unwilling and obstinate.

Oh the hope of my life! Oh the peak of my desire!
Tell me how to get rid of the manacles.

Ah, my eagerness and from your turning away and, ah,
From your love and remoteness and from your denial.