1. The letter of a young man to a soft cheeked beauty,
Yearning and sorrowing I pour out to you,

2. For the lover pours himself out to the beloved.
She used to answer when we wrote,

3. So water and tend the one who answers!
She traces her letter with a branch of basil

4. And musk, like ink on the basil twig.
A letter full of "when" and "to" and "if only"-

5. Her missives leave me amazed.
I tease the ignorant one intentionally,

6. Yet the subtle one is not unaware.
She said to bright-faced girls

7. Who capture the hearts of youths and graybeards:
I am the shining sun when it rises,

8. Though I'm not known when it sets.
My Lord exempted me when He exempted me,

9. Free of flaws I have remained.
If I speak to a sick man,

10. The sick man won't need a doctor.
My creation is kneaded with ambergris,

11. So I need no perfume but my own.
I tie my girdle in a loose knot

12. On a plump, firm stack from a dune.
If an ant crept on my skin,

13. It would prick my skin with its creep.
My saliva is sweet water with honey-

14. Nothing tastes sweeter than honey-mixed wine!
They said to her: "You speak true! But have you been kind

15. To a man distracted, despairing of you?"
"A stranger came to you; let him go,

16. For reward is sought in strangers."
She said: "Faintness appeared in him,

17. And faintness appears in the dubious man."
We greeted him, and he bewitched us with magic-

18. Every smooth-faced one is beguiling.
She did no wrong, but we wronged ourselves,

19. Drawing too close to her.
We were seduced into misery by love of magic,

20. As Christians were seduced by the cross.
I forgave her sins and overlooked them,

21. But she forgave not, nor overlooked my sins.
If only the south wind would answer me,

22. I would send my greetings with the south wind!
A speaker woke from love of magic, and I said:

23. "You erred, you did not hit the mark."
I commanded her to part from it confusedly, then repent

24. To the Merciful for what you have said, repent!
Oh, would that I were an obeyed judge,

25. That I might judge for the lover against the beloved!