1. How long you sit, urging on the camel of love,
As if resting from her market were pleasing to you.

2. Go, drive her into the open desert, where
She is like lightning flashing among the dunes.

3. When passion stirs her she surges into perilous seas
Where obstacles seem easy to her pace.

4. Hurl her against the firebrand—she on embers
Gallops like a charger bred for war.

5. Lead her among the gazelles in early dawn,
For there the wild roes find their grazing place.

6. Princely hunters are made captive by desire;
The lion cubs are taken in the lairs.

7. Gardens watered by the spring of beauty, growing
Loveliness, where charm thrives in every plot.

8. Gazelles and wild cattle come there to pasture;
They encounter the beasts of passion, hostile yet abashed.

9. There a gazelle surpassing the sun in beauty
Competes with each constellation in its rise.

10. She outshines the full moon on her perfect night,
Dimming the western glow to sure decline.

11. A slender one, disdainful of the planets' lanes,
While planetary mansions look to her for guidance.

12. Of all the short-eyed maidens she excels,
Displaying the most gorgeous raiment.

13. Delicate, lithe, and languid, clad in the wonders
of speech—all yielding blandishments and charm.

14. Her drunken eyes in daybreak slumber,
How often she has wakened to find them at watch.

15. If her saliva were appraised with perfume
The appraiser would surely err in his estimate.

16. She melted me with love till I fancied myself
Healthy, while obsessions gained on me ever more.

17. I came on her tribe at night, with the Pleiades
Protecting her, while the moon cast down its beams.

18. Ever since I drew near to the houses of her clan
And found the gazelles gathered there, docile and gentle,

19. With lions of the forest guarding her campsite
All night, maned guardians warding the campsite—

20. Then I cared not if I should perish,
While fate's hands plotted against souls.

21. I attacked, intent on reaching her campsite,
As though I were the true lion, and the true lion vexed.

22. I stole in beside her—laughing at the way fate
Mocks me, as though death were no thought of mine.

23. As she greeted me, she said: How did you get here
With all the champions of war still barring the way?

24. She said: Can no valiant knight but you
Pass by the lions' lair when night has fallen?

25.
I said: I am no brave knight,

26. But a devoted friend, now hopeless.
Passion has driven me to hurl my heart

27. To a lioness, with fierce cubs in her midst.
But if you mean to find for her a champion today,

28. Then blessed be the face of that champion!
The brother of excellence and kindness, a meadow of discretion

29. With the flowers of refinement standing about like brides.
The branches of all elegance lean upon it,

30. And the best of beauties take root within it.
The waters of loveliness have nourished it with delight:

31. Could rivalry aspire to such charm?
The tender blandishments were all implanted there,

32. For who that grafts can graft such tenderness?
The stock produced the fruits of his fair traits—

33. So praise them! Truly they are rare.
An eloquent, articulate speaker whom none can equal,

34. Over whom the orators have no advantage.
What an ambiguous, plagiarizing rhymester he is,

35. Who shares not with him the gift of fine rhetoric!
If Suhban had seen his likes he would not have boasted

36. Of drawing all the thronged assemblies to himself.
He is the full moon amidst the lesser lights,

37. Though one of the Pleiades rivals his descending.
He is invested with the noblest pedigree,

38. Wearing the garments of the highly placed.
God granted him a valiance that admits no peer,

39. While fate was jealous, playing the spy.
Perfect in the beauty of his grace and dignity,

40. His garment woven from the warp of gravity.
O lofty scion whose root is excellent,

41. A branch of glory flourishing with pride!
To you I freely offer a maiden, shy until

42. She languished in your absence, forgot her sulkiness.
She has dutifully come to you, a bride

43. Beside whom all other brides are forgotten.
She came to kiss the hand—and hands like yours,

44. Without a doubt, suffer no shame in that.
So deign to accept her, a simple maid who came

45. To you whose kindly welcome will console her.
I swear by God the moon has risen

46. And lit the wings of nightfall and the falcons.
Even the passionate lover did not ask the guide