1. Why has your heart grown fonder, though it spurns the blame?
It heeds no chiding, though reproached by many a dame.

2. Did Time afflict it, or did it take this course,
When from its guidance strayed the songs it used to frame?

3. Those rosy cheeks betray no trace of all their tears,
Save only when my glances strike them, in their shame.

4. Smooth as pure honey is that chin’s coquettish bow,
As though its dimples sugar crystallized became.

5. O critic, chide me not for loving him, since love
Allows no thought but of the idol it acclaim.

6. A gazelle whose pasture is our hearts, not the wild,
With tangled growths of lotus flowers and artemisia rife.

7. So perfected are beauty’s charms in him, you’d say
He is the moon of heaven in his fair shape and life.

8. For me, Hell’s raging fires and Paradise’s joys
Are pledged in him, as in his union and his strife.

9. The night’s beneath his collar, while the sun’s beneath
His veil; his turban is the darkness and the light.

10. His leg, as he walks proud, is like a branching palm,
When it emerges draped in anklets ringing bright.

11. You see upon his cheeks a chain of life that flows,
So give me drink from off that chain, its draught is sweet.

12. The moon in its phases, wheeling high to low,
Runs its appointed course, from four to incompleteness.

13. Estrangement kills me, while a kiss upon the mole
Restores me, when his crescent happens to increase.

14. Scant is the joy he grants from union with him, though
Its states are many - forbidden, lawful, purest.

15. No sooner does he walk, exposing leg and flank,
Than hearts are made his captives by such tempting sleights.

16. Many a roving camel have I brought to kneel,
Whose speed could match the racing winds in their caprice.

17. An army on the march, whose squadrons shake the ground,
Assailing stubborn mountain heights and battlemented keeps.

18. And I remain there, challenging with subtle verse,
While o’er the hills my camel climbs and does not cease.

19. A poem have I wrought to praise this noble king,
As brocades beautify the throne they decorate.

20. When rains refrain, his gifts enrich the land no less
Than showers, and beyond all hopes his bounty runs increase.

21. By his fair deeds of justice Time itself turned back
In its revolving course and travelled to what was before.

22. Above his head you see a tent of honour reared,
Made from his quality, nobility and worth.

23. The sun itself in heaven might wish that it could swoop
To kiss the dust his slippers press upon the floor.

24. Time relented for his sake as never it relented
For all mankind together in the days of yore.

25. When suppliants seek his aid, his gifts go without count,
And when the time comes to punish criminals, his blows are sure.

26. A lion raking enemies with piercing claws,
Yet sheltering his cubs with a protective gentleness.

27. In feats of glory and in greatness he is peerless,
In faith’s strict duties and observance without flaw.

28. None in the heights of honour can compare with him,
No house was ever sole inheritor of worth so pure.

29. Giving or withholding, he respects his neighbour’s rights,
But woe betide who would malign him or rebel.

30. Like lions ravening, or clouds in thunder bursting,
Or Time itself, wreaking vengeance with might secure.

31. Were East and West weighed with him in the scales
They could not match the value of his little finger.

32. O moon, whose auspicious fortunes are controlled by none,
You pass your phases guided by no law of loss or gain.

33. This is your constant circuit round the mansions
Of honour, higher than the sun or crescent plain.

34. By trials you were schooled in wisdom and refined
As swords rubbed and ground until no flaws remain.

35. To you, O ancient pillar, marvellous reports
Are brought from exile by the experimentally wise.