1. My moon-faced beloved showed at dawn
His cheek lined by lovesickness made sallow

2. So he showed me golden in the morning light
Like saffron flowers yellowed in the meadow

3. His cheeks were rouged until they seemed a bloom
That my glance had fingered, nipped or scratched

4. His eyes brimmed wine he’d scarcely recovered from
Though awake, like one drunk, eyes bloodshot

5. As though the morn had watered his cheeks’ bloom
Till, by his glances, vivified, refreshed

6. The eye of Ibn al-Ahmar wept unsmeared
By kohl for sadness and wakefulness

7. He tried in killing me until he thought
That fate itself through him had pierced my flesh

8. He never stopped bewitching us until
His eyes’ sorcery to those he witched

9. Where can I flee, if his glance marshals hosts
Of spells and against me arrays an army fresh?

10. His glances thronged and bared their blades, so that
Their might made me draw my sword and lunge afresh

11. A fawn, when walking, you’d suppose a bough
Swaying with graceful shoots, a pine refreshed

12. Loins burdened by substantial buttressings
As water buckets burden the water-seller’s sash

13. And when he sits a day his sitting still
Seems softer than a carpet made of fur

14. His cheek’s glances raked across my eye
As if my heart by glancing him were gashed

15. My eyes etched lines on him and so revealed
What by my heart on them was etched afresh

16. Withheld, then showed themselves, drew near
Perhaps to kiss what they had nibbled fresh

17. You are like the moon seen now, now not
Lonely awhile, awhile the dark refreshed

18. However you desire, for passion’s rule
Prevails, its every whim on us impressed