XXI: I continually call to mind this sweet and…

I continually call to mind this sweet and charming friend,
Through this exalted name of whom, I acquire the heart's good.

How then can I be patient, severed from such a dear one,
When I perceive no sign of resignation in my heart?

Through this anxiety about her, I am ever miserable,
As to what remedy I shall devise; of whom, inquiry make.

In its eagerness for a look, it hath wholly left its seclusion:
With what chains shall I restrain this incomparable heart?

Except I make a snare of the ringlets of the faces of the fair,
And place for the bait, their musky moles therein.

I will put forth the whole wisdom of the enlightened,
If I may, this wayward heart, by any means, entrap.

Verily, it is become so utterly scattered to the winds,
That I find not the least vestige of it, in any direction.

It hath abandoned the universe, in search of the beloved:
How then shall I quit the world, in the pursuit of it?

No tidings thereof can be obtained, in any quarter:
I sit not down, abstaining, nor do I follow, in pursuit.

The body's vitality is the heart; and the heart's, the soul;
Then, without heart, and without soul, how shall I exist?

Of life, not even a dying breath remaineth unto me:
Frantic and beside myself thereat, I beat my hands and feet.

Still, this my death, is far better for me, than life itself,
Since, my soul I have abandoned, for the loved-one's love.

Regarding the putting off of mortality, Mirza thus testifieth--
When from this being, I cease to be, I shall entity become.