1. The guide jested with his cheek, so it wrinkled,
A sprout whose buds burst upon carnelian, emerald.

2. The elixir of modesty melted on his cheek,
So he turned his pure silver to unalloyed gold.

3. The waters of beauty flowed in his gardens,
So I knew the dew had crowned the roses.

4. A bough of his nape was scarcely bent
That I wondered how the bough bore clustered fruit.

5. A brow shone like the dawn illumined,
So I saw a mouth like the crescent when it wanes.

6. A moon appeared in the darkness of his hair,
Revealing what lay between misguidance and guidance.

7. The denier forfeited Paradise and its bliss because of this,
So he cast him into Hellfire, condemned forever.

8. A gazelle whose glance was languid and melting,
Did you see how the glance’s lid grew languid?

9. One who girds my blood with the sword of his glances,
So beware, my heart, of the glancing, sword-girding one.

10. No glance shot from his eyes but found
That you had let loose the sword from its sheath.

11. With cheeks like roses, the gazelle’s radiance,
The bough’s slenderness, the gazelle’s shyness,

12. Had the intoxication of youth’s wine not inclined him
To confusion and union, he had not raved.

13. No indeed! Had he not been a bough, the warbling
Of the cheek’s moles on him would not have trilled.

14. By my life! Without his garden’s roses my streaming
Tears would not have flowed into it torrentially.

15. O star toward whose beauty’s Kaaba
The lofty celestial bodies bow down or prostrate!

16. I did not think your beauty perfect
Until I saw the spittle glistening on your lips.

17. The beauty of your cheek has related, from its plain,
Camels of beauty, whether halted or led in train.

18. You have fettered my heart and chained my tears,
So I have become in them fettered and chained.