Suppose a partridge loses chicks, can she
Do less than mourn her babes where they belong?
Suppose a nightingale should lose its red
Tulip3 can it but sing its yearning song?

If a jenny loses her young foal
What will she do but search for it, alone?
And equally, if camels lose their young,
What can they do but roll about and moan?

And this gazelle - if she loses her fawn
And strains to hear its feeble bleat again,
Does she not crouch, as sorrow mists her eyes,
And weep once more, poor thing? Is that not pain?

Suppose you kick a lame man's crutches off -
Is he not bound to suffer hopelessly?
A sow confronted by a larger foe
Defends her litter quite ferociously.

How can we bear the pangs of final partings,
Though Death may steal upon us while we sleep?
Even if Makhtumkuli's son were nothing but
A cub, what then? What should he do all day but weep?