1. I have a critic in love, how unfair his criticism!
And how far from the path of justice his judgment strays!

2. He foolishly hopes to be seen as one who chases away,
Venus away from the rising ear of wheat.

3. A wayward, unjust beloved,
Whose melodious lute, how fair it plays!

4. As if its strings were, in their resonant hollow,
Hippocrates, seeking the pulse of one he examines.

5. How foolish is the critic in his opinion!
He is, without doubt, exceedingly confused.

6. Who judges fairly the love for my melodious one?
For the heart, her strings cause tremors.

7. Her strings kill her visitors,
She is unfair to them, to her the blame lays.

8. Sickly-eyed seductress,
Her glancing eyelash, how murderous its ways!

9. Her face, if it met the full moon,
Would send it back shamed and abashed.

10. Her stature is perfectly proportioned, like a delicate
Branch of sweet basil. Glory to Him who created it!

11. She sways a bough on a sand dune.
Her coquetry in her dance has inclined it.

12. Who can say that she has a equal
In beauty in all the world? How ignorant his claim!

13. In my heart, the fires of passion, whenever
I remember her, blaze in flames.

14. Whoever saw her among all creation
In a gathering, attained what he hoped.

15. She is like the rose in its season,
How excellent is the bloom of a rose, how sublime!

16. In her cheek, the rose is picked, undoubtedly,
So blessings to him who kissed it!

17. Her saliva is wine, but he who
Deprived her of it in her cup, made it lawful.

18. How brief are the days of a rose!
And its lifetime in estrangement, how long!