1. Tears likened her, what an evil companion!
Though I may say, ah, what a good aide!

2. It suffices one who loves degradation
To await help through ignoble water.

3. My tears conceal within my shirt alive,
Have you learned my shirt contains an ambush?

4. How remote my abode and how near my passion
When intimacy grew distant and the heart hardened!

5. Disgrace appeared on her after them
Increasing until it almost failed to show.

6. If you say, where are those who transgressed?
Its echo says to you: where are those?

7. That is the disgrace and this the echo -
One is her disdain and the other a sigh.

8. And how many cheeks and eyes through her
Were clad with tears until they flowed!

9. And I may ward off the spy because of her
Or render the hunters without need to sing.

10. The lions guard their den around him,
Say then: is it a church or a lions' den?

11. A life ordained for me - how much before
Its ordination did I yearn for it!

12. So each day that passed - nay each hour -
My right to weep for her for years is due.

13. The sum, O most passionate one, is that
She resembled the climbing plant in hue and softness.

14. And one who, in his mouth, a mim and a sin,
Afflicted me by one whose lips enchant.

15. I wasted on the red wine of his mouth the fruit of his saliva
And here are the notes in the margins of his two dimples.

16. His glancing revealed the sorcery of my sanity -
How true is he who termed it evident sorcery!

17. And he disappointed people of their trusts,
So you see no trustee among them toward him.

18. And if he is excessive in his firmness toward me,
In him are sorrow and about him suspicion.

19. I doubt that, were he depicted in musk,
Say not to me: it is water and clay!

20. By God! By God! In His creation -
How evident is the doubt and how clear the certainty!

21. Glory to Him and glory to the one whom
He singled out with evident favor!

22. My father and my lineage - its string
Is pearls and those pearls precious.

23. His righteousness toward me along with my maturity through him
Has clad me in the two best garments, worldly and religious.

24. It is as if, when he increased in his benevolence,
He taught fathers the righteousness of sons.

25. Do not praise me but praise him, for from
His benefaction comes my generosity to the deserving.

26. Nay, his bounty is higher because I am but
A taker of thousands and giver of hundreds.

27. Indeed, his enemies and enviers
Saw that favor until they were blinded.

28. And it vexed them when he came to sit
High in place, in a firm position.

29. When delegations come to his door,
Ask not about his wealth - what he attained.

30. He disdained wealth so that he
Would not honor a man until he disgraced him.

31. It is as if the sea on his left
And exalted in rank that it be his right hand.

32. His describer is hired to describe him
Because he has in his words no deceit.

33. The open-handedness of his palms is always ours
And the rain, if it flows, flows at all times.

34. A judge decreed that God should not be seen
To have a peer among his creation or a match.

35. The eye of the sun would love, if it blinked,
To live when his forehead shone radiant.

36. The full moon too, if it emerged
Revealing his cheerfulness or brightness.

37. God, how my life with him blessed me!
For the life of a man is only tender living.

38. My life is youth, and my love as you know,
And the cup of joy is my familiar aide.

39. And how many hopes I coveted
Relying on you to fulfill them!

40. O lord I call when I have a need,
And he by being called is worthy to be trustee.

41. I swore I would attain wealth,
And you are worthier to fulfill oaths.

42. So bestow upon the ages and their sons,
And remain, for its days that remain.

43. This is my prayer, and all creation
Says after my prayer: Amen.