1. I swear by the days of youth and a maiden
Who used to flirt with me with a sleepy glance

2. The roses do not reveal the cheeks of brides
And the breeze smiles from the lips of spinsters

3. More radiant and joyful than the glare of her passion
In the night it destroys the prevailing darkness

4. She said, and coquetry shook her charm
The breeze shook the threads of a wavering water-channel

5. Tell me, O Solomon of time, who is the one
To whom eloquence is subservient like an obedient steed

6. I said: the son of Sakra the eloquent, so his poetry
Is a light that dispels the gloom of a sullen face

7. Then she said: the whiteness of the beard of a poet
Cannot be bought with the blackness of a spinster's hair