1. Who is this senseless one who calls the sun obscure?
He clouds the bright star of the gathering with his rant.

2. Ask his pardon for one who railed against her,
Just to please a people who had vilified her.

3. They charm with glances, so that if the gazelle
Saw them, he would say, “I am her brother.”

4. A chest like a mirror in which the ghosts
Of a people who met her are made manifest.

5. Between sculpted marble shoulders she has a neck
That he wished with his throat he could have scored.

6. If she has no blemish, then why does he
Stick out his tongue if they give her a sword?

7. She is the beautiful one, not the ugly one; through her
God puts the others to shame for their vileness.

8. Her complexion vaunts the hue of the dove,
And shames the redness of ruby in her cheek.

9. If what they claimed were really true,
And they deliberately attributed vice to her,

10. It would be about a sty, for the bleary-eyed,
When they look upon the gazelle, see only fault.

11. So let her dawn, darkening the sun with her beauty,
While Abdallah’s idols are her father.