1. Despair overcame my heart after hope had passed
And drowsiness drowned the watcher's eyes

2. She came stealthily to my bed
While the guards were fast asleep

3. I spent the night with her comfortably
With no barriers to our union

4. With her I had from the wine of affection
A cup, and from the saliva of her lips, a chalice

5. A sweet-smelling ambergris caressed me
Beside her, and a perfumed gentle myrrh

6. When her beauty shone like the full moon
No tarnish could dim its radiance

7. A blamer reproached me for
Staying with her, though my heart was detached

8. I said to her, I had no desire for questions
And questioning is but an encroachment

9. And if wonder must come to
A man whose virtue cannot be trodden underfoot

10. Then if she is generous to me, such is her nobility
For all matters can thus be measured

11. And if she rejects me disappointed, I will not say
So-and-so's hands have no worth to me

12. And I will not call that stinginess if
The price of my luck has been debased

13. For our master Mustafa said
Words whose truth has a firm foundation:

14. "Among my nation there is no miser
But for all peoples there are peoples"

15. And I have donkeys from all kings
To light my way through the dark tribulations

16. A youth whose pool of gifts is never muddied
An openhanded host, unwithholding

17. So do not compare him to any man in existence
For the polished Indian steel is not like Damascus

18. None in generosity is like Hatim
And none in intelligence like Luqman

19. The champion of thrusting lances, he
When the battle was inflamed between warriors

20. The beloved of nobility, praiseworthy
His seeking of glorious deeds is unceasing

21. My donkeys, may you remain in honor
With the cheeks of enemies trampled under your hooves

22. For you are the soul of nobility
And for glory, the eye and the head