1. No skill, however great, can capture love
As your spirit has, oh my dreams' nightingale.

2. The nights were sweet to my heart after they stormed,
And my days blossomed with you, my days.

3. Your eyes send pure sparks
Like flowers blossoming in April's limbs.

4. For your eyes have stirred my blood,
O bewitching one, with eyes so fair.

5. I broke the cup of wine
And offered it to spring -

6. I knew the wine of my soul
The rosy drink of ardour.

7. The fault of this flower is that its arts
Are fickle girls who never keep their word.

8. Each youth claims his share, as though it were
A newborn hailed by every gazing eye.

9. The lovers swarm about it, though they are
The most adept of God's creation at the hunt.

10. I came to pluck this flower, to gain its love,
And it showed what wiles women have in store.

11. What are you, flower of spring, if not
A scarlet cheek warmed from my inner flame?

12. Your girls, spring flower, are so many,
The prettiest that eyes give hint of joy.

13. I wish I'd squeezed their cheeks until
I'd bring the roses back to life with juice.

14. Is life not just a moment, which if gentle,
Makes for a draught of wine upon the cheek?

15. Ask the apple blossom what it craves -
It will give birth to one with breasts like moons.

16. Ask the unripe pears what they intend,
And if they do not answer willingly, I have their secrets.

17. White daisies weeping dewdrops
Are favoured by the lovers for their charm.

18. They count them, hoping they will find
Them true to the beloved's promised tryst.

19. Ask the flowers whose names people don't know
And whom they deliberately neglect to water.

20. Egypt's flowers beyond counting, though
Too delicate for a man to string like beads.

21. Ask the Nile's poets about the spite
That thrives in an age thriving upon spite.

22. Dusuki would praise their name
At a feast, like desert flowers in a field of glory.

23. A noble, generous, lofty writer -
He reaps from literature fruits beyond the seen.

24. Yet from a genius, if a genius indeed,
Expect in battle tens of thousands of troops.

25. When ministers are praised for their nobleness,
Then the beauty of a verse transcends all praise.

26. With the mysteries and witchery of words
We've conquered realms, with lions for our flag.

27. We clothed the world in beauty, and it became
An intricate Yemeni cloak against the cold.

28. With verse we reached and peered at existence
Like a flaming sword that makes India cower.

29. I have returned to the rose
And sheltered in its haven -

30. I set it my heart's fire
And it marveled at what I have done.

31. For the embers on its cheeks
From the flames I have draped it with

32. Now complain of the torment,
"Oh, would that I had not done this!"

33. A heart may become barren while the garden surrounding it
Is resplendent with roses, lilies and myrtles.

34. A heart flowers only when a beautiful spirit guards it
And comforts the cosmos's wounds.

35. Of what value are flowers that wink at me
If their soft petals do not find that cruel one?

36. I see him in everything beautiful that meets my eye,
Among jinn and men alike.

37. When will you return, while goblets still have
A craving from the zest of the winds - O craving, my craving!

38. This is how you seem one day with no dawn:
The loveliest leaping scout and smooth-flowing water.

39. You roam the garden gathering its choicest scents
Though in that garden you are sweeter than diamonds.

40. Is that a song-bird or a fragrant soul?
As if its aroma were the breath of a goblet.

41. The gazelles increased, grass so verdant,
And your soul increased from my verse and breath.