XVIII: When black antimony is applied unto dark eyes

When black antimony is applied unto dark eyes,
From one dark calamity, another hundred spring.

Black eyes, and sable locks, and dark eyebrows--
All these are gloomy misfortunes--man-devourers.

No one is able to guard himself; even from one ill;
Yet on me, a hundred misfortunes are heaped, one on the other.

I am neither accounted among the living, nor the dead;
For love hath placed me, absolutely, the two states between.

What now, indeed, is either name or fame unto me?
Wherefore doth the bare-headed, woe-begone, beat his breast?

If thou, O monitor! tallest thyself as wise as Plato,
Unto me, in sooth, thou art but Majnun's crazy brother.

I will now embrace the paganism of sable ringlets,
If thou givest any of thy admonitions unto me.

O fool! love hath vanquished many powerful ones:
Why then, on the strength of thy hypocritical austerity, so elate!

What idol is it, O Hamid, that is resting on thy heart,
Unto which, thou art ever, in adoration, bent down!