1. Ask my slayer about my fate with tearful eyes,
Surely the sick cannot claim healthiness!

2. If they both admit the crime they perpetrated,
Then the sin is absolved by the remorseful offender's admission.

3. How can the glances that murdered me deny the killing
When my cheeks still bear the traces?

4. A gazelle, so proud among the acacias,
Who spurns gazelles amid low shrubs and lote-trees.

5. The softness of her glances makes her eyelids quiver
Over the smooth cheeks of an elegant, slender one.

6. So take the wine from the lustrous Babylonian eyes and leave
The words of him who claimed that wine is (only found) on lips.

7. The wearer of the cinched waist will not mourn one thirsty
For the kisses found on the slender waisted ones.

8. If I say "where are my reins?" She says "I have released them!"
Such are the abandon and submission in me.

9. I wondered how her aqueous body
Could be so harsh and stony at heart!

10. Turn gently, O she of beauty, grace my eyes though lacking grace,
And captivate with your glance, my night, devoid of magic!

11. We think your swaying figure to be a bough
That brushes against the leaves of hair.

12. And you have a glance that makes the houri bow down in obedience
For what they saw in it of defiance.

13. My ardent heart, wretched in its misery,
Is not a borrower of passion from you on loan!

14. No! My eyelids have naught in their love for you
Save weeping, crying, tears and wakefulness.

15. You give generously the bitter aloofness while I give
My tears and the ransom of my faith with silver coins.