1. Greetings, O traveler! Stop for stopping has reward
What loss in stopping when rain slakes your thirst?

2. By God, your Lord, have you no news
Of Mecca and its people that you've heard?

3. Came you not Minā with pilgrims thronged
From 'Amr's mother, of him they speak the word?

4. A Meccan girl, for whom his heart is seized,
Grief forgot, he finds no patience stirred,

5. Swaying in her saddle, like a palace fair,
In youth's fresh bloom, a goddess he's adored.

6. To him her fate's ordained a time to kill,
For all things come to pass as fate's preferred.

7. The month being as a day, if you're content,
The day a month, if wrath in you's incurred.

8. A lovely houri, her kiss is sweet,
Pure wine it seems, the taste of wine conferred.

9. Ambergris in musk her breath perfumed,
And cloves that waft when morning's winds have spurred.

10. Gleaming she moves amid the dark, the gloom
Like moon dispelling night, her rays unblurred.

11. Languid her motions, by shyness rendered weak,
A timid doe, by awe of man deterred.

12. The sun beneath her veil seems to shine through,
Or jar poured fresh that rain's abundance spurred.

13. At you she glanced with eyes like spindles twirled,
A houri whose gaze the faint of heart have stirred,

14. Her silver legs as if of wine they reek
Frequented by the rain and wine conferred.