1. By the Lord your God I implore you
Gently, for a heart I implore you

2. By my father, a girl whose face
Left no glory for either moon

3. Nothing is the branch but her stature
Nothing is the rose but her cheeks

4. She denied my blood unjustly but
I kept looking at her, kept looking

5. Had she come out to compete with
The sun, her brilliance would shame it

6. Rather, had her mouth seen my love
It would not blame me with rejection

7. No gazelle in a garden of sadness
Seeking her does she go in longing

8. She galloped to a fine speaker
She loved him and went out to meet him

9. One day, in her finest aspect
With no veil or cover upon her

10. Like her neck, her neck in its grace
Like her earrings, her earrings in place

11. Nothing made us bow to the baseness
Of shame except our love for her face

12. While I said of our life “Woe to it”
When I said “Alas” for her beauty