1. I set out at dawn, when night’s veil lifted,
On steeds with folded wings, as if

2. Ambergris-hued stallions, while the beasts
In their haunts were still unalarmed.

3. The ground bared its cheek to us from a lovely
Appearance, like chrysolite, ruby or pearl,

4. White, red or yellow. A fawn whose eyelids
Had not looked on us, we started, whose mouth

5. That my eye mates with has not unlocked,
A delicately slender one who almost shone,

6. As if smiling but not laughing broadly,
Tears of perfidy not yet dirtied.

7. The meadow is washed by a rainy night,
As if dirhams strewn on a brocade cloth,

8. Or like an elucidated Koran’s interpretation.
The sun in a verdant firmament

9. Is like a teardrop flowing in an eyelid,
Watering a grassland like an effulgent lamp,

10. Prodded persistently lest it turn refractory.
A roe-deer’s palm turns it round,

11. With a fragrant forelock like ambergris
And a smile revealing its core,

12. And a mole beneath the outstanding merits.
Its eyes inform about a covert passion

13. That teaches lechery to the inexperienced,
Startles the hunted prey with a full moon.

14. As if clad in flowery raiment,
With eyelashes promenading above the eyelids

15. Like well-kept secrets in disguised lines,
A tail like a decorated sword.