XVIII: Since thou art the sovereign over the whole…

Since thou art the sovereign over the whole of the fair,
Inquire after the condition of the wretched and distressed!

Break not hearts! for they are rubies of Badakhshan
It is difficult to repair such broken things again!

My heart and soul are entirely bound up in love for thee;
Look then, these thine own heart-bound ones upon!

The flowers of the parterre have all revived thereby;
For the zephyr hath come from the nosegay of thy face.

When they beheld, with their eyes, thy stature and figure,
The waists of all the adorned ones crooked became.

They have deprived me altogether of sense and understanding--
Those gentle, tender words of thine, so pleasant and so sweet.

My head than the seventh heaven shall be higher exalted,
If thou makest me one of the sitters in thy court.

Like unto thee, there is none other of disposition so noble;
Didst thou, indeed, from the angels this nature acquire?

The heart of Khwajah that thus speaketh, hath been carried away
By the wiles and persuasion of those closed-mouthed ones.

Life and goods, as an oblation to them, will I give;
For I, Khwajah Muhammad, am the disciple of the fair!