1. I asked my pen to draw the moon
It created beautifully and fulfilled my need

2. I became greedy with it, so I said: I like the star
So my pen pictured its beauty in images

3. What I see in my pen increased my greed
And man is greedy for what is good in appearance

4. So I said: Come on, draw me a garden and cottages
Green, pleasing in its arrangement to the sight

5. And create an image of the towering palm trees
And picture the spring, the flowers and the trees

6. And picture clouds floating in the sky
And draw the lightning in them and paint the rain

7. So my pen created beautifully all that it drew
Until I saw its impact on my mind

8. I became greedy with my pen, I said: Draw dreams
So it pictured an image, my mind was dazzled

9. I said: Draw the flash of feeling, so it burst forth
To portray lightning when it seizes sight

10. I said: Draw the agony of the longing one, his fervor
His nostalgia, his flowing tender teardrops

11. And portray his night that continued to afflict him
With its length, and inhabited his eyelids with vigilance

12. And portray the longing one’s joy when he sees
The face of the beloved and forgets the worries and distress

13. And my pen continued in all that it drew
To show my eyes the creativity it concealed

14. And its brilliance increased my greed in it
So I rejoiced, seeking elaborately what was concise

15. My pen, you are leading in creativity
You have made great what is small in the glimpses of art

16. Come on, draw the face of my beloved and her smile
And two eyes, if directed, they would spellbind

17. My pen stopped, gloominess overcame it
Until I imagined the pen's head had broken

18. What silenced my pen, why did it frown?
Why did its creativity in drawing shrivel?

19. It said: Do you ask me to draw a beauty
If the dawn saw her eyes, it would not have spread

20. And if the flowers in the oases saw her smile
It would not have perfumed us one day or blossomed

21. And if the dawn breeze saw her present
On the banks of open spring, it would not have attended

22. As if its pen had become stone
So I said: Glory to Him who created beauty, we will never

23. Even think we see a human