1. By the life of her father she never broke a promise with me
Nor did my eyes part from her, though parting rends the neck veins

2. Does Sa'd bid me desert the pretty doe
And disobey, though my inclination is to obey her behests?

3. If so, then am I free of compact with caravan and night-journey;
Nor shall my camel know a hobble or saddle cloth;

4. And night I spent in the camp - while for dawn there remained
Only a little when on the stars I saw morning-break;

5. I would accost the fair-faced girls under it
And grasp the hems of their robes of chastity.

6. I had joy of her while the night was black with clouds
That made sport with the blackness that mantled the darkness.

7. Never saw I the like of her wit in cups
Nor aught more rational than her breathing in union;

8. She smiles at the necklace she is strung on, so that
Her necklace and neck seem in her smile but one.

9. And when the zephyr blows o’er her the perfume wafts from her
As though she bears aloft her scarf of rose and myrtle.

10. Ask the zephyr of Nejd about her, and it will inform thee
That the breaths, since she dwelt in Nejd, are perfumed.

11. That the branches and myrtle, since she neighbored them,
Are like the weed called ghar, or the reeds called rind.

12. Never have I opposed a flashing blade in fight
But I made night attack the blackness of night.

13. With it I rent the canopy of gloom when tattered
Were its skirts, and its lightsome moons waned wan.

14. And there had gleamed in it from morn a phantom
That made less the shadows of the cranes, outspread.

15. I traversed the meadows on an eve, while the steeds
Decked with the light went with streaming neck-bands.

16. Wild pigeons answered the neighing of the chargers therein;
I hurl them along in yearning and ecstasy combined.

17. Up, and drive them on, or leave them, for I
Will impart unto my heart's care effort without toil.

18. I will abandon my land and turn from the camp,
Making for a land whose people know honor and glory.

19. If the steeds bring thee not to the perilous heights,
May God not preserve the glossy coats aught of help!

20. Between troubles, if gloom falls, I will make
A barricade of an aswad lion of the asad.

21. Abu Bakr suffices one who seeks succor
Against Time, or wanders lost in his efforts.

22. He suffices me, apart from treasures, as equip¬ment,
If the game be enemies, he was first to equip.

23. His purpose makes the star of un ¬wavering course sink lowly,
His resolve draws from the rock the runnels of water.

24. If clients' hopes on thee are centered, seek for him a peer;
Plenteous in bounty, though gifts transcend the desert sands.

25. The dew of his palms is baser than bounty's torrent;
Though he could command eternity, owned he eternity.

26. When days play false he opposed their fickleness;
When mankind were untrue he opposed them too.

27. Generously he bestowed favors, and heroically withheld them;
Gifts he gave, and gifts he took away.

28. Brighter than flames I've seen his smiles shine forth in the night,
Kindling their spark like fire-sticks briskly rubbed.

29. When writers writ 'twixt his fingers, lo!
The fangs of the white wolf their slave you'd deem them.

30. Of my verse I made for him a necklace and wound
Round it thoughts and the pearls of fair deeds strung.

31. By thee, O pillar of the judges, far from blame,
A mind's offspring, which enchants the foolish and the wise!

32. She came to thee from afar that she might set
Between her affairs and the strokes of fortune, distance.

33. And I promised her garments that I would attain glory by thee,
While she guaranteed to fulfill for thee the promise.