1. صحّت لديّ أبا مروان عن طُرُقٍ

    قضيّةٌ نامَ عنها الزهرُ والثمر

    It has been confirmed to me, O Abu Marwan, through many channels:

    A matter of which blossoms and fruit slept unaware.

  2. نلتَ المنى من غزالٍ وصْلُهُ حُرَمٌ

    يَلينُ قَداً ولكن قَلْبُهُ حجر

    You won your wishes from a gazelle whose union is forbidden.

    He is supple of figure, but his heart is stone.

  3. أحْلى من الأمن وصْلاً لو ظفرتُ به

    لكن تُسَوِّفني عيناهُ والنظر

    Sweeter than safety in union, if only I could win him,

    But his eyes and his gaze keep putting me off.

  4. يَجولُ ماءُ الصّبا في صحْن وجنته

    وَيُنبتُ الوردَ أحياناً بها الخفرُ

    The water of youth flows across the expanse of his cheek,

    And bashfulness sometimes makes roses bloom upon it.

  5. هو الغزالةُ في إشراق غُرّتِهِ

    وابنُ الغزالةِ لحظاً زاتَهُ الحور

    He is the sun in the radiance of his brow,

    And a gazelle's fawn in his gaze, [apparently adorned] by his eyes' black-and-white contrast.

  6. أتى به الدهر فرداً في محاسِنِهِ

    فقلْ كثيب وقلْ غصنٌ وقلْ قمر

    Time brought him forth, peerless in his charms.

    So call him a sand dune, and call him a bough, and call him a moon.

  7. يا كعبةَ الحُسْنِ طاف العاشقون بها

    لهم بأرْجائِها حجٌّ وَمُعتَمر

    O Kaaba of beauty, which lovers have circled,

    Within its precincts they make pilgrimage and lesser pilgrimage.