1. The rose gardens blushed and shyly withdrew,
The branches burdened with ripening fruits anew,

2. My cheek grows cold when I try to touch its hue,
Its coolness from the flexing of its pose ensue,

3.
It rises up then sits back down in its place,

4. Its rising and its sitting filled with beauty and grace,
A gazelle yet no gazelle has her gait and pace,

5. A full moon no full moon her jewelry case,

6. The moon borrows its face and its high station,
The gazelle her glance and graceful animation,

7. Aloof from me I shall string dreams of infatuation,
That I may hunt her down to my elation,

8. My eyes grow weary deprived of her visage at night,
When her phantom's contour cradles my sight,

9. To God I complain of a heart that does not want me,
As my fortune dictates and as my heart commands she,

10. No fault but the chafe of grief that insisted stay,
Patience refused so my tears paved their way,

11. With reddened eyelids and a slender waist that would not
And a passion daily revisited in new form arrayed

12. Veiled coquetting with the morning its drops on her trail,
But far greater the drops that her aloofness does curtail,

13. A glance more heartrending than white on black prevailed,
Baring it and stout hearts will instantly fail,

14. Sanctioning the murder of a soul that so loves,
But what profits the murder of he who above loves?

15. Say but peace and by her glances war will be waged,
Be witness that by morn my life she has engaged,

16. By nights of desires, feverish, aflamed,
Kindling in us hopes of reunion long claimed,

17. Reminding me of hunting gazelles how they are maimed,
By arrows let loose no beasts get spared or shamed,

18. And when we stood facing the fragrant breezy hills,
The valley suffusing musk that every sense fills,

19. The regiment closing ranks revealing their skills,
Beyond count or measure such disciplined frills,

20. The clouds now drenching and thunder appalling aloud,
As rain pours from the Nile waves rising proud,

21. Ask the falcons circling so high above the crowd,
Who has tasked them until their prize allowed?

22. But the righteous King's steeds as stories have avowed,
His dales and plains by excellence endowed,