1. Is the full moon aught save the veil that shrouds her face?
Or dawn save what her smile reveals?

2. Or flame save what appears above the hearth?
Her whiteness and the heart of lovers is her brazier.

3. She took up residence in my heart when she took up love's abode,
So my heart revolved around her and my tent about her home.

4. A glance that would be snatched if it were possible to seize it,
A beauty that would be sought if it were possible to take hold of it.

5. When she removes the veil and daybreak arises,
The sun's morning clouds disperse.

6. The end of my fortune is to kiss her dust,
The easiest fortune for the veil is to cling to her.

7. You see the sun's splendor in the night of her hair,
Under the sway of her face’s spear and her perfect stature.

8. She outshines the shining full moon - truly,
For all time fearful of eclipse is its perfection.

9. The leaves of her jewelry sing at her shoulders’ curves
When the doves coo in the waving branch.

10. Her glance wavers between wine and sorcery,
Containing them - and speech as well - the young pearl.

11. We both vie, but her eyelids
Are always drunk with meaning and allusion ever drunk.

12. And the night she visited, the Pleiades were as though
They were a necklace clasped round her neck and smile.

13. She greeted, so she brought to life what her disdain had killed,
She turned her face, so she restored the soul to well-being.

14. And she said, with eyes that saw my sickness:
“What ails you?” I said: “Is it not lovesickness for you?”

15. So she revealed her mouth’s pearls in a dimple -
Light burst forth and her veil was lifted from it.

16. She sent it far, no! - a young pearl she protects
With shells of ruby, sealing their water.

17. And she said: “Never has the eye known her like,
Nor has sleep since she was veiled and her affair grew difficult.”

18. “You have wearied my eyes’ lids in the darkness!”
I said: “Ask my lids where is their sleep!”

19. And I did not know that with my lids parched,
My life was like hers - she held its reins.

20. And how many nights did I gossip with her stars!
As though I was a shepherd who had lost his flock.

21. As though the Pleiades, the crescent moon, and Darat
Encompassed them - and the Pleiades brought them together.

22. Bubbles floated around the fluttering silver
In the palm of a girl who passed the wine-jug around.

23. As though they were stars spilled in the Milky Way,
The rising flood swept them into its throng.

24. As though they were gardens whose water flowed down in tiers
Where arum lilies split them and lotus stabbed through them.

25. As though the constellation Corona Borealis was a gemstone bracelet
Which lit up the Alya when it parted from it.

26. As though Alnath and Alshira in the sky were unveiled slave-girls
Whose shooter shot his arrows, one below the other.

27. As though Suhayl and the stars behind it
Were worshippers’ rows with Suhayl as their imam.

28. As though the night were disheveled tresses - the stars therein
Were tongues, and lightning flashes swords among them.

29. As though the falling stars were raining horsemen
Plummeting from between the tongues’ points.

30. As though Mars was a kindled spark
Appearing in the distance, its embers hidden.

31. As though Sirius was Sirius being poured towards its meeting-place,
Its eye keeping vigil through the nights, not sleeping them.

32. As though the heartbeat was a longing heart
That saw the land of lovers - the strongest in might.

33. As though the Pleiades in the breadth of their expanse
Were a generous right hand fearing no withdrawal.

34. As though in her generosity she modeled herself
After the Nile, watering highland and lowland.