1. Do you think her rosy cheeks are made of poppy flowers?
Or that her breasts are pomegranates from the gardens of Paradise?

2. You were amazed when you saw her lover,
So you diminished her, though you had come to praise her more.

3. A girl whose eyelids are sick from the armies
That attack so often when her eyes call them to battle.

4. I heard that moles on cheeks are considered her slaves,
So I wished that her slaves would multiply in this way.

5. Every war brings truce for the people
Except the war of those whose white skins are conquered by her black braids.

6. And every sick man prays to God for relief
Except her rebellious eyelid that brings her no benefit.

7. A slender waist like my weary body
Her breasts rain upon it like her necklaces.

8. I saw the penis of a cucumber withered,
So I knew the cause was the cucumber's jealousy of her.

9. I desired she who has so much of our blood on her
Adorning her neck like a necklace.

10. A beauty leaned against me - if she had played
With her tent, its pillar would bend when the north wind blew.

11. But I am one who has prepared for his fate
Battalions of patience beyond counting.

12. And I have dignity from the manners of Ahmad
So I avoided her though she sent no lightning against me.

13. Manners that adorn virtues with their beauty
As necklaces adorn the whiteness of throats.

14. If the spheres are stars, then she is their moons.
A generous one whose old virtues still shine when heard.

15. If affairs look gloomy in the morning,
He heals them, by God's permission, when he returns to them.

16. He has ambition for distant events,
Drawing near those whose deeds have earned it.

17. The beauty of his character and manners are joined in him -
Rare, precious qualities, exalted in their existence.

18. The light of beauty adorns his face,
Fluent greetings pouring forth benefit those who hear them.

19. From his mind come the sharpness of swords and their cutting edge,
And from his resolve in tribulations, their steel.

20. Indeed the son of the righteous one is suited for sincere praise,
So he became a prince leading rhymes.

21. Before him, the generous have situations
Whose claims are valid, whose witnesses are honest.

22. Composing poetry has become difficult for me because
Its frustration grieves my patient heart.

23. Of poetry there is praise - few deserve it,
And satire I do not aim to produce.