1. Drink from a broken jar and a patched waterskin
And leave the jug; drink from a bucket

2. For love and passion in this life have
Passed, their days gone and sins committed

3. And listen to me, an elegantly adorned poem
Memorize its details and its essence

4. Say, O Beauty, by the Prophet
Does this life have anyone with alluring charm?

5. Slender of body, smooth of cheek
Alluring eyes lined with kohl

6. Whenever I nudge or lean close
He shyly blushes, cheek red with embarrassment

7. Or maybe you know I’m obsessed
Always distant, busy with something else

8. No, my beauty, never have my eyes seen
One so breathtaking, with shoulders high

9. O noble son of noble fathers
My mind confused by this gazelle of the valley

10. Tall neck and cloudlike hair
Lips that ooze honey

11. When youth tastes it on a winter’s day
It banishes cold and browned vine leaves

12. Drink it quickly, my beauty
Though it seems pale, sweeten it generously

13. The wind blows over the hills
Hunt whatever you wish, unleash the horses

14. Joyous days gone by, their
Comfortable life fulfilled

15. At the foot of the cistern our band gathers
Who enters leaves, who leaves enters

16. Inform the watchman on battle day
The brave knight and adorned horseman

17. Best of the famous among nobles
Esteemed, of high pedigree and lineage

18. Greetings, fine, beloved
That you mentioned, O friend, the best deeds

19. His figure fits in one line of verse
His sitting stance like a bucket’s

20. If asked about his height
I’d say an arm’s length, or less

21. His smile tells of a string of pearls
Unsure where is the clasp

22. If given a cucumber
It’s enough food if he eats

23. If given a drink from which to sip
He sucks it lovingly like a weasel

24. He has a thousand places in the bushes
Moved from here to there time and again

25. How many gardens for him in my mind
He wanders like a phantom, imagination stirred

26. His waist—my eyes have not seen it
Nor spotted hips in that slender frame

27. Unsure where in his charm he lies
Nor where in my heart he entered

28. Only my eyes saw his radiance
Like sunlight beaming through a hole

29. He has a cheek like a mustard seed
A nose the size of an anklet

30. If he sneezes, I’d say a mote flew
Or a loved one came to reunite

31. So I’m tempted to imagine him
All who walk the road fall for him