1. I seek refuge with you from the injustice of your glances,
And with your kindness I make my apologies.

2. What patience is there for your disdain,
He who has none when you are away from him.

3. O crescent that protects the daisies on my cheeks,
O sword from whose blade pours blood.

4. Say to your eyes, "What have you seen?
How can the narcissus protect the fiery tulip?"

5. You have kept my eyes awake, and to the right,
No blame lies on one enraptured by you.

6. How, when your cheek knows I am slain by you,
Could you say my tears are no revenge for you?

7. Your eyelid I wondered at when it won by grace
Over its weakness, though in it is ruin.

8. Who claims bloodshed in love is error,
And who says, "No shedding of blood by the mighty!"

9. Observe God in souls, for He will not forgive
Their Creator to neglect them, the Almighty.

10. My friend, how long this estrangement from God,
These drinks and lutes that multiply sorrows?

11. So turn your care, if you are visited by fortune
With meaning, wherein reason wanders astray.

12. And profit from the hand of a lovely gazelle,
In whose hands traces of dye remain.

13. A creature of hair like the wings of night,
Under it, from the brightness of her temples, day.

14. When she appears, a full moon rising,
When she is hidden, a branch, and if she is merry, joking.

15. What sun is on the litter's pole
In a howdah, containing her robes?

16. She denied slaying her lover. But her cheek -
How came that redness on it?