1. How much virtue this speech embodies,
Both prose and poetry of understanding,

2. And pleasant, elegant stories it contains,
Collected over days for Arab and non-Arab.

3. My limbs tremble when I read it,
Like the daughter of the vine trembled because of drunkenness.

4. If I were to be fair to it in my love,
I would skin it and take its bones as my own.

5. It is dear to my virtue that I not obey it,
Despite its generosity to those seeking knowledge.

6. And if I could, out of excessive love,
It would not leave my palm, or disappear from my grasp.