1. She has a watcher in her heart at dawn exhaling,
And a face prompting sins to arise,

2. With a figure like a bending branch of Indian aloe
Weighed down by hills of shifting sand.

3. As she rises, a lofty bough sways
And bends with her lithe body.

4. As if a brilliant dawn under her veil
A night's wing had alighted and folded.

5. She smiles from two dimples of lovely mischief
With it the morn's breeze blows musk and ambergris about.

6. Her anklets, ivory, and gown constrict as she walks,
Her clothes gird her waist, revealing a thigh.

7. A girl of good stock, as if she were
Daughters of nobility, undefiled by shame.

8. She is like a fawn, with the eyes of a fawn,
Soft, delicate, and pampered.

9. They promise but never fulfil their vows to lovers,
Breaking the pact of the Friend.

10. I rejoiced in them, gathered together,
And the boughs of my life were leafy and green,

11. With comely and genteel pleasure for mirth
And songs sung by them, melodious-voiced.

12. They grant us successes in our promised trysts
With hands dispensing the fruits of hearts.

13. The eyes of gentle, sickly-languid gazelles
Whose glances plant passion in every soul.

14. When they draw the wine-skins close to our souls
The wine flows freely, in spite of the miser.

15. They vow not to break the bond between us
Yet still they go back on their word and betray.

16. Though we strengthen the ropes of our love,
Time in its caprice parts lovers.

17. They slander, tale-bearing 'twixt us,
Defiling our secrets, searching them out.

18. They take the path of rebuke between us
As the thirsty violets drink the dew.

19. So fickle chance has shattered our union
After its bonds were so firmly interlaced,

20. And all that is new must of necessity
Emerge, for the maker of this creation is heir.

21. They are the nights that hold sway over mankind,
Annulling and leaving nothing lasting.

22. He who does not win the kingdom of virtues and morals
Will leave his riches to enemies as inheritance.

23. The youth is exalted whose clothes' lining is
Pilgrimage, piety and wisdom third.

24. He is clouds raining life on the prosperous
And a fierce lion to the wicked and unjust.

25. He has clemency, honor, and reason that adorn him,
With morals no shameful deeds can debase.

26. Two hands here that repel each oppressor
And two here delivering the desperate from peril.

27. So be a generous lord, of boundless bounty
And guard your honor from the slanderer's tongue.