1. The cooing of doves in the branches,
Nor the bubbling up of wine in cups,

2. Mean aught unless when attained
Propriety obliges the guise of play.

3. Because of this beauty which conveys
A people from sobriety's grasp to rapture's expanse,

4. They who have looked on sheer beauty without
Any restrictive jealousy or veils,

5. Are enamored of slender waists
With their flexings, and half-smiling lips,

6. And are infatuated with eyes, if they glance
Shooting strongly arrows of eyelids.

7. And they have surrendered in passion, subduing them,
Willingly to the rule of unmarried beauties.

8. In the secrets of their own passions
Is nothing dubious or corrupt.

9. Their eyes were created for beauty
And purified by flowing tears.

10. They have perceived no rank that restricts them,
While together they are the cream of ranks.

11. Turn thou about their taverns, haply a spark
From one of their cups without flame,

12. May divert thy cares in the turning,
Or thou mayest in the folk attain accepted kinship.

13. And be thou their parasite in proper wise,
For I see no intercessor save propriety.

14. And if thou drawest near to their pavilions,
Bow to the glory of beauty and approach.

15. And abstain thy tenderness in their presence
From thee, for he who is absent from them is not absent.