1. More beautiful than the full moon is a kiss from my beloved,
And cure for my sorrow is a visit from my healer.

2. Though the friend of my heart is pleased with his companion,
Still his heart has no rest from his companion.

3. The lightning is but a flash from his eyelids,
Appearing and disappearing like a flame from his embers.

4. It makes him drunk, but with the wine of his tears,
And it excites him, but with the song of his lament.

5. He thinks the breeze is the specter of his day,
So its breaths kiss him in its blowing.

6. May God tend the meadows of youth in the one I bade farewell,
Who walked with purpose though to meet his demise.

7. When the firewood of play from me grows scarce, still
I sported with the swaying of the lithe branch.

8. I yearned like the mound of the bough from it, and if
It leaned away I yearned for its leaning bough.

9. And he still knows that an hour of his cheer
Makes up for a year of his gloom.

10. How often has my affection clothed him with the garb of my embrace,
And torn the garb of pallor from my cheeks.

11. My passion for him, my agony from him, my tears for him,
My heart is his, playing with him, devoted to him.

12. He does good with a beauty that was once a sin, so
His beauties have become counted among his sins.

13. The rising full moon does damage with its radiance,
So how can you see it doing otherwise in its setting?

14. The fancy of ill thoughts made me imagine
That when a deputy came from my watcher.

15. If he were in an age whose pact was ancient
He would clarify to al-Ma'mun the flaw of his neighbor.