1. I was not the first lover among mankind
To follow the beloved in front and from behind

2. And saw weeping as a healing spring for him
One day and another, laughing through tears

3. And becoming love-struck, distraught
Crouching, facing forward and back

4. Moaning, writhing, panting,
Contracting, screaming, howling,

5. Humming, singing, whistling,
Murmuring, drumming, strumming,

6. Sometimes yawning, stretching,
Sometimes lazy, all crumpled up,

7. And if he saw a sensible view, he would be
Indecisive and late in implementing it

8. For love is the mind’s mind, which makes it
Stray from what’s right and lose control

9. I used to wonder when they said a poet
Had a Jinni, and I thought that a lie,

10. Until I met my two companions, and found
That they were made of the same clay

11. Beauty was created for the eye that pours out love
And for its heart a fire that grows hotter

12. No wonder the cheeks of one who loves
And carries passionate love turn red

13. Would that man could buy immunity one day
From them with something that can be sold and bought

14. Would that their beauty for them were like salt in
Food, made less tasty if too much

15. Rather would that they were created uglier than what is seen
So we wouldn’t crave, confused and unsure

16. Would that the beauties were ugly old hags - how excellent!
Deformed, not a lovely sight to behold

17. Would that the slender one were a camel, the plump one
A mule, so we could gloat in relief

18. Would that the eyes were small, with nothing
Of value strung in the mouth like yellow beads

19. Would that each leg were a thick, crude stick
Finer and slimmer than the Arcadia reed

20. Would that no sleek hair covered the temples above
Black locks like the darkest night

21. Would that what’s on the cheek weren’t soft down
Apparent there, marring the sight

22. And beauty is that ugliness has a nicer look
Since no eye sheds tears over what it sees

23. Why, then, did our minds and hearts busy themselves
With passionate love for them the most?

24. Why were they singled out to captivate all hearts
And adorn themselves above all other women?

25. Why did they rise above men in arrogance
When they lead and when they follow?

26. How can warriors have patience when their
Deeds have baffled even the steadfast?

27. We created them, yet they control our minds
Whether they enter or leave, they madden the sane

28. Why was there no punishment for whoever
Made the lovesick heart elope in passion?

29. Why did the saliva of the sweet lips
Intoxicate as it flowed like wine?

30. Why do curls take pride in a cheek
That wakes and sleeps consumed with love?

31. Ask her if the bread oven rose well enough
Every month or was late for months

32. Where is the glory and generosity, where are those
The nation took pride in for their might and defiance?

33. He is led by the name of a mole if she mentions it
Willingly or not, and he defeats armies

34. And if she frown for an instant at his face
He asks, did ambergris turn foul?

35. And the prominent man may fall madly in love
From a whiff of scent from the beauty’s nostrils

36. And if the great Alexander contended with her wiles
He would see a second pair of horns on his head

37. Were it not for women, I would not have seen
One err, or foolish, corrupt, or decadent,

38. Or bankrupt, or obtuse, or too delicate,
Or ostentatious, or vulgar, or indecent,

39. Or obsessed, or crazy, or raving,
Or faultfinding, or critical, or suspicious,

40. Nor would skulls have been scattered in battles
As swords revealed what the turbans covered

41. Were it not for them, nations that shone
Like stars would not have fallen into ruin

42. When misfortunes befell nations and erased them
I spoke words that had been recorded:

43. O Lord, women have seduced our minds,
So erase their beauty that is scorned,

44. Or cast a blindness over our vision,
Or blind the seeing eye entirely,

45. Or guide us or enlighten us or save us,
Or distinguish us by nature, clearly.