1. And a square where we delighted in the mysterious magic of night,
While dawn's breath ebbs and flows.

2. The crescent tilts westward like
A bird pecking with its beak at a starry seed.

3. Delicate are the sapling's leafy edges, yet its branches
Are supple, and its blossoms clustered.

4. When the wind toys with its boughs
It twists them into chains or plaited braids.

5. The flower buds and buds about to open
Are eyes from which tears spill and wink.

6. The dawn breeze almost cannot slip through the thick trees
In that garden without getting snagged.

7. Sunbeams and the gentle wind - when
An intruder steals through, lying in wait -

8. Are a surveillance team stretching out a hand,
Trying to grasp him, then drawing back.

9. We turned our horses down a stretch
To shield the people from the glare of the plateau.

10. No sooner did the horses sight it than they were spattered
With their riders, eager to get free.

11. For an instant they raced, while its waters
Still glistened on the flowers and the shade shrank.

12. They craned their necks, frisky and prancing,
Chomping the vegetation and churning it up.

13. We stayed there till sunup, marveling at it,
Each man avid to possess such a wonder.

14. But when a wing of darkness reclaimed the sun,
And twilight, bent and cross-eyed, crept in,

15. We summoned the stallions by name, and they came,
Frisking, fluttering in their paddocks.

16. And we left, but now, after being heedless,
Each loathing to bid farewell to his own shadow.

17. A lad dislikes leaving comforts;
He has no means to escape Fate's treachery.

18. To God belong the eyes that have seen the like of its beauty.
I do not exaggerate what I have said.

19. I came upon it in an era, and snatched it
Away in a blithe, carefree time.