XXVIII: Really, this existence, so to say, is altogether…

Really, this existence, so to say, is altogether worthlessness,
Since, in the world, I pass my life away, absent from my friend.

I cannot imagine what unfortunate, hard grain I am,
That I do not become ground, between the mill-stones of absence.

The sable locks and fair countenance of my beloved,
I behold in every thing, white or black, in the world.

I use my tongue in such a manner, through helplessness,
That I may my friend regain, either by falsehood or by truth.

If other folks, by alchemy, transmute dust into gold,
I, by the alchemy of love, have turned gold into dust.

Where is love? and where too, shame and modesty's fear?
Where there is shame or modesty, dancing cannot be.

If thou seekest a dear-one, for her, shed thou rivers of tears;
For, in the waters of this ocean, that pearl can be found.

From the door of worthy and base, he preserveth both breath and step
Whoever wandereth about frantic, in desert and in wild.

Hamid styleth that person a mere worshipper of idols,
Who, with manifest hypocrisy, performeth his duty unto God.