1. The heart recovered from the memory of Qutaylah after she had become like a shackled captive.
She has a delicate, smooth foot; her toes are perfectly proportioned in beautiful creation.

2. And legs that flesh flows over them to the tips of her anklet with dangling bells.
When her wrists were sought, her palms were inclined in the most excellent of manners.

3. With a target on them that you see atop the perfected creation an elevation of beauty.
When she lies down, her side keeps away from the ground and holds her like the hump of a sand dune.

4. When a noble knight mounts her, what an excellent bed for the noble knight!
She sways with him, a male ostrich, when she is feeling amorous, the breadth of the hillside fox's tail sways.

5. Her thighs fold back his cloak, inclined to the likeness of a shifting dune.
A sapling, like a branch of acacia, sways when she walks with the gait of a gazelle in every meadow.

6. And breasts like two pomegranates, with a neck like the neck of a gazelle, if it were not cast off.
She smiles, revealing dimples like the scattered seeds of chamomile whose sprouts have not been stripped.

7. Her sparkle is like polished glass, as if you see the eyes of a wild cow, even if she were not darkened with kohl.
Eyelids languid, on the beauty of an eyebrow and a soft, glowing, dreamy cheek.

8. She has a smooth liver, a bosom hidden in secret, and a neck like the neck of a camel led out to pasture.
Her anklets circle her two ankles when she walks, ringing out a delightful jingle.

9. She is perfect in beauty; there is nothing above her, though my words about her are frivolous.
And she knew in secret that I love her, and that I have mastery over myself in being decked out.

10. I did not complain before Qutaylah killed me with the child. She has undone me with the child, all undone.
When I say a thing, I do it. I am not one to change my word or alter it.

11. Passion destroys until it lays bare a man’s reason and makes the forbearing, dignified one kill with fury,
When she wears a head shawl and then flashes with her wrists, and the sun has just risen,

12. She bites a palm with a bracelet adorning it, fingers like the lobes of the branched date cluster.
You saw the generous one, of majestic manner, gazing while the heart of the mocking outcast melted.

13. So leave her be, and cast away your worries with one who increases in excellence of bridle and saddle,
And which land did I not visit its expanses, and which land did I not answer its call with my camel-borne litter?

14. On a day we encamped at Dove Spring, an excellent rest for guest and wanderer.
Convey to the clan of ‘Ijl a messenger - and you are people of esteemed lineage and magnificent glory -

15. We paid the thousand for you to your people, and we returned with the hastily gathered ransom money,
And we drove back the Persians by force, and we broke among them the spear of ‘Abdal.

16. So which cultivator of the ages hopes for our expanses when we did not show favor in what turned away?
And which ordeal of truth have you not been tested with, yet no one being tested was found wanting?

17. We lead the life of nobility, so do not covet our pastures if we did not show favor.
And convey to the clan of ‘Ijl a messenger - you all have esteemed lineage and brilliant glory.