1. Did she know, the day she turned away, that she was slaying me,
Or did she aim her glances blindly, unable to discern her hits from misses?

2. No! He who sent her as a temptation knows how she troubles devotion,
Yet I who rushed upon destruction was sure that she who smote would heal.

3. She loomed between the saintly spot and Miná, like a grazing gazelle,
So God requite her for her deadly blow in His inviolate precincts.

4. He said she tempted me, and I entreated her with a draught to cool my raging thirst.
Call her not wine-bearer, for He who declared wine unlawful declared her mouth unlawful too.

5. She was endowed with every beauty she desired, so that every eye that saw her lusted after her.
Chaste of mien she is, ere naming her father in proclamation of her pedigree, guarded by modesty.

6. Had she lacked protectors among her tribe and been abandoned to the winds by noble kin,
The sun, rising, had hailed her as sister, and the boughs, waving, greeted her as brother.

7. Among her equals and her nation's throng she saw around her, thick as the wild cows and mountain stags, handsome suitors sufficing her,
Though the brambles and sands of Dahna veil her, and cloud and shower hover over her,

8. And were the stars to rest awhile with her, not collectively could they attain to a tenth of her loveliness.
Ah, the misery of what she has enchanted me withal, of ardour and passion and amorous delight!

9. I complain of separation, while my heart bears the scar of my long lament.
An absent beloved bars sleep from my eyes, turning me over at night and rousing me from slumber at dawn,

10. While night after night steals from me, concealment from every confidant who might heal my sickness.
My tears flow still at noon, despite my people's censure, and the fires continue to blaze while all around sleep.

11. When the sand hills burn with unslaked thirst and men crowd round the water-seller,
I rise to help them, dazed with the heat, and they flock about me with hands like wine-skins.

12. God preserve their palms from clay, so gentle the day they modelled them!
Decreeing men's fate, and their own hearts' decreeing their hands' tenderness and sympathy.

13. As the just prince has none but the ways of good and none knows good but he,
Seeking lofty goals unflaggingly, mounting the ladder of virtues step by step,

14. Granting free rein to the noble soul, though glory commands it or restrains it, submitting if it yields or disobeying if it resists,
Hovering as a fledgling borne on ambition's wing to soar to the zenith,

15. Thwarted by no obstacle, bounding always to advance, traverse endless wastes,
He bore the burden of grief from his people and they could not ease his load,

16. So that if he errs or they, he prays forgiveness for their fault with what his hands have fostered.
We shall see them, after you are gone, paralysed and tottering, with the nomad asking the herdsman for news of them.

17. Perhaps Heaven will stir them with ruth for their plight, and sorrow at what has worn them threadbare,
Teaching them that he who brought them low and cut their mooring ropes was the man assailing their honour.

18. O you whose charge it is to convey what is hidden, announcing what a mission has never demanded before,
Say, when were you granted the favour of seeing a beloved cohort whose sight delights these eyes?

19. My brotherly namesake, how often is an eye painted with collyrium when you are its gleaming lamp!
How my grudging heart envies the patience expending itself on its own grudgingness!

20. I used to complain of love's torment, but joy was near at hand, while now the camp lies far away.
Just when I began to unfold the scroll of happiness, it closed again, hiding what follows.

21. A gift came from you, and I rejoiced, for it bore your nobility's stamp, unreckoned, like rain on thirsty soil,
Seeking me without announcement, with no intimation to alert me or focus my hopes;

22. Base thoughts have never made you spurn legitimate gain you could take in a year of want.
It is noblesse oblige if you appropriate what you want when you find a chance for profit.

23. Another I had offered earlier, investing it with wealth and rank beforehand,
So I thank you - how eloquently the spokesman said, ‘When a man speaks, it is his mouth that speaks his thought!’

24. With marvels to make the familiar seem strange, and the mighty to gentle in devotion:
Tamed for me, obedient now to my command, though erstwhile stubborn to all who controlled them.

25. By my soft sorcery I have bound their ears, deaf to all but me, slaves among those who relay my speech.
Old in years or tarnished, still the flower of beauty as in their days of virginity,

26. For you are all of their beauty that rejoices or delights, useless to others were it theirs to enjoy.
Adding blessings to your days of celebration that they were not hosts entertaining you as strangers to their land,

27. The New Year brought from them gifts needing naught beside, and the messenger I sent with my book, had fulfilment been possible, would have been its recitation.