If what you have left of me

were hung from a stalk

of panic grass

the stalk would not bend

I would rejoice

if I became emaciated

and my body pined away

Perhaps then

the wind would blow me

towards him

He has so pined away,

Were his body to be pressed

into the eye

of a sleeping person,

he would not awaken

Suffice it to you that I am

so love-emaciated

that, had I not been talking

to you,

you would not have seen me

O Umm Mālik!

You have left behind

but an echo

that blows with the wind

wherever it blows

I have pined away with longing,

Were I to be squeezed

into the eye of a sleeper

he would not awaken

I once had a ring,

Were I now to gird myself

with it

I could surely do it

As I wasted away for love

I was afraid

that eyes could no longer see me

Had I not been talking

My companions would not have found

where I was

A gaunt body lives

in my clothes,

Were the wind

to blow on it

it would be swept away

My clothes house a lean body,

Were you to lean on it

It would surely

collapse

Keep what you have left of me

for me

Perhaps one day

it will protect

you from your enemy

Keep whatever is left of a heart*

that pined away

with love-sickness

Were you to place my heart

in your eyes

It would not deprive

you of sleep

* “muhjah” (heart) also means soul, life, innermost self, blood-life etc.

She marveled

when she found me gaunt

as if glory

could only be attained

through struggle

Lovesickness and moaning

have become intimate

with his body

and passion has so weakened him

that he could not be recognized

Doubts perceive him

only as uncertainties

yet he is too invisible

to be perceived by doubts

We have heard his moaning nearby,

So seek the body

where the moaning is

He is not alive,

Indeed, he is ice

that has melted

from love

so death could no longer

find him