1. How many slain like me were martyred,
By the white swords and rose-red cheeks,

2. And doe-like eyes, not like any eyes,
That did away with the garlanded drunkard.

3. The rain of youth flows—days go by—
My tresses flow in the abode of Athlah's mansion.

4. May God prolong your life! Have you seen maidens
Appearing in veils and necklaces?

5. Archers whose arrows—their feathers are gold—
Split hearts before they split skins.

6. They drip from my mouth drips
Sweeter to me even than professing God's unity.

7. The wine is more delicate than the wine
In the heart of the harsh and stony person.

8. A complexion as though ambergris were struck
With water of roses and aloes-wood.

9. Smooth as an unmottled counterpane, soft—
Plump, thick, without any creasing.

10. Musk she emits from her breast,
And she reveals a cool fold.

11. She combines the body of Perfect Ahmad
And the mien—between the eyelids and languor.

12. This is my passion before you, for my time—
So lessen it or add to its torment!

13. The people of my household are champions who hunt
With a quiver and bow of osier.

14. All blood is forbidden
Except the blood of the grape.

15. Give it to me freely for your eyes' sake—my soul
For a gazelle, a fruit, and my bondage!

16. My gray hair, my humiliation, my thinness,
And my tears for love of you are my witnesses.

17. What day did you cheer me with union
Without being guarded by three chaperones?

18. My stay in the land of palm trees is but
As the Messiah's among the Jews.

19. My bed is the flank of a steed but
My shirt is a coat of mail.

20. An excellent, brilliant, accomplished nation
Whose fabric was woven by David's hand.

21. Where is my superiority if I am content
With a hasty life of abasement?

22. My chest tightened; my rising to seek
Sustenance grew long, and my sitting diminished.

23. I always roam the lands, and my star
Is in fortune, while my ambition is in felicity.

24. Perhaps I hope to attain some of what I seek
Through the kindness of a dear noble one.

25. A freeman is clothed in rough fabric
While the slave is clothed in smooth silk.

26. Live proud or die while being noble
Between the stab of spears and the fluttering of flags.

27. The heads of spears quench hatred
And heal the rancor in the breast of the envious.

28. Not as you lived, ingloriously,
And when you die, die unmourned.

29. So seek honor in valor and leave abjection
Even if it were in the gardens of eternity.

30. The helpless coward is killed
While the bold one flinches from cutting a newborn's cord.

31. And the fearless man is hurt
When he plunges into lapsis water.

32.
I take no pride in my people but they take pride in me,

33. And by my own self I rose, not by my ancestors.
By them I boast, and every eloquent one boasts,

34. The refuge of the criminal, and the prey of the outcast.
If I am conceited, then it is the conceit

35. Of a wondrous one who found no one superior to himself.
I am the land of dew, the lord of verse,

36. And wrath of the foe, and spite of the envious.
I am in a nation which God granted victory—