1. A courtesan among the peddlers of passion
In her chillness, all freshness is beautiful

2. Her beauty adorned her in her youth
Alas, she strayed from the right path

3. She leaned towards me and said: "O my poet
Describe me, and say - is there any to match my figure?

4. Is it not delicate?" I said: "You have not erred
But it sways to every wind!"

5. She said: "And my eyes? They are stars
Twinkling in the shade of my dark eyelids"

6. I said: "Your eyes are devoid of life like the stars of nightfall
No mercy flows from them!"

7. She said: "And my hair is dark like the night
On which the youth sleeps soundly at night"

8. So I said: "It would not have darkened had not
The shadow of your spirit fallen on it"

9. She said: "And my heart? It's a bird
With melody in its beats and anguish in it"

10. So I said: "Truly it's a bird
That nests wherever it desires!"

11. She said: "And my cheek? It's a rose
Created unlike any other - impervious to fading"

12. I said: "It is the rose, but
It is shared by all who come and go!"

13. She said: "And my body? It's molten dew"
I said: "If modesty roamed it!

14. It would be pure as dew, but
Lust has cast it amongst the wolves!"

15. She said: "And my lips? Red grapes
Whose wine is pressed by their veil"

16. I said: "But I've never tasted them
So I know not what to say!"

17. She said: "But I am a seducer
Who captures minds with my beauty"

18. So I said: "Bodily beauty fades, and
No state of beauty endures but declines"

19. "Except the beauty of the soul amongst mankind
For it is an eternal beauty that will not pass away"

20. "Oh what a gathering it was for passion!
Where nothing was said but absurdities!"