1. The new moon appeared so I called it, “Full moon of dark nights,”
It bent so I called it, “A bending branch,”

2. It glanced at me so I called it, “A gazelle of Kinas,”
It bared its teeth at me so I called it, “The lion of the lair,”

3. Where, oh where can you find one with such beauty as that face?
Where, oh where can you find one with eyes like those?

4. Who has a branch with such soft bending as that one?
Who has a full moon with radiance like that forehead?

5. Who has a lion with daring like that one?
Who has a gazelle with eyes like those?

6. I don’t think God has created
Anyone with your charm, coldness and gentleness

7. You who are long-gone without an excuse,
Have mercy on me in my poverty, answer the call of the wretched

8. For I have great debts to your eyelashes,
I shall repay though my debts are never repaid

9. Between my eyes and your cheeks there is a tale
That speaks of declaring love and temptations

10. Who will help my heart against the blow of an absent gazelle
Ever wandering and continuously playful?

11. With no plain Arabic in it, so the critics thought
They had managed to strip me bare

12. But then it appeared unexpectedly
And we all fell in love with it in an instant

13. They forgot to blame me in their ecstasy
And I forgot their blame in my own passion