When that willful beloved is not by my side, why would my only business day and night not be to weep?

Here, the poet describes the beloved as a 'self-willed idol'—someone as breathtaking and cold as stone, who answers to no one and follows only their own whims. When such a capricious lover is absent, an overwhelming emptiness takes over the lover's world. With nothing left to hope for or occupy the heart, shedding tears from dusk to dawn becomes the lover's only full-time calling.