VIII: O would that there were not, in the…

O would that there were not, in the world, the pangs of absence!
That the heart in this ocean of separation were not o'erwhelm'd!

Let not the heart of the beloved be of love and constancy divested,
Though the pains of bereavement may have the lover despoiled!

Wherefore may not the heart of the lover be lacerated,
When every moment it is stricken by separation's sharp sword?

Afflictions, like unto black snakes, twist and twine thereon,
When the flood of bereavement goeth straight unto his heart.

Whole bands from this world depart, one following the other;
For the ocean of separation hath laid the whole universe waste.

From this heat the very mountains will, like water, melt,
Should the fiery glow of bereavement unto them attain.

The cypress-like in stature have been laid low, Ahmad Shah!
But let not thy body ever bend under absence's load.