1. O you who roam the deserts at dawn
Among the fragrant herbs and meadows

2. May your sweet glances slay me
With piercing arrows from your tender eyes

3. The sick are healed by your radiant gaze
While the healthy are made ill by love for you

4. Your lashes like falcons swooping down
To capture hearts and carry them away

5. You enchant with your beauty, though meek
For in you lies a power none can evade

6. Your eyes have bewitched the gatekeepers
And so too the glances of the white antelope

7. O you who offers the cup of friendship
Between the springs and fountains

8. I drank in one gulp its bitter draft
My throat convulsing with its acid burn

9. Not to necklaces will I go, though made
Of finest gold and jewels as adornment

10. But to the two dangling earrings on you
Like twin new moons peeking through your braids

11. Dawn breaks softly through the dark
As musk perfumes the morning mist

12. The blush upon your cheek reveals
A glowing ember midst the braziers’ smoke

13. You are a pearl dropped by some merchant
Fallen from his hand in haste

14. Your radiant face like the rising sun
Whose dawn light journeys far and wide

15. So I shall ride the dark night steed
With stars like jewels as my caravan

16. Seeking through the gloom my heart’s desire
Though fortune frowns on my endeavour

17. I travel on, though the night is harsh
And darkness reigns where falcon wings dare not

18. I tame the darkness and subdue
Its rage and fury by my will

19. When it turns away I expose its guile
And when it howls I expose its crimes

20. I toss it down when finally
It sleeps, though still the stars keep watch

21. I rouse the lazy narcissus eyes
As all is hushed and tranquil in the camp

22. Unbind the steed against his will
And he starts like a startled onager

23. Serve him the wine of good cheer
To soothe the pain of sorrow’s stab

24. In a golden cup, though filled
By hands that rob all joy from life

25. A secret draught that reveals
What lies hidden in hearts sincere

26. In great and small cups I drank deep
Committing in both a shameless sin