1. She took me unawares with her sorcery beguiling me
While ignorance and frivolity were enough for her

2. And I had kept the behest of him who was my sincere adviser
A scholar knowing the ways of the crafty and cunning

3. Until when my bones were wasted, I chided her
Like one chiding a yearling camel, bursting with rage

4. So I saw her withdraw, fearing a splitting blow from me
In horrified haste - what a moment that was!

5. And you knew, un-Halimah-like,
That no passion should bring me down to ignominy

6. Foolish woman! Does it not behove you now to guide
Me, in my dotage, with good advice?

7. I keep faith, I am no traitor, I will never be
A lodger forever in the abode of treachery

8. And yet you turned from me, after love steadfast
How do you reconcile this perfidy, changeling?

9. One day complaisant to be led, another day
Aloof, disdaining me out of spite

10. At times meeting your brother amiably, at others
Deeming him a blackamoor to be shunned

11. A scabby, mangy hag whose evil is to be feared
So hideous, so obscene, so coarse of face

12. A dusty crone, abasing herself in the gloaming
As I stole away silently under cover of night

13. A shrew who extends her rein with claws
Like a lopped palm-trunk stripped of its leaves

14. My rage at her yell was a shower of pebbles
And the thud of feet in the meadows green

15. She made out phantoms though blear-eyed she was
With the wild instincts, not eyes, of a human

16. A brazen, shameless hussy, who vaunted her wares
Under the noonday sun like a zealous pedlar

17. Repelling the noonday heat and dust with a brow
Like a cave - with a veil she had screened its portal

18. Rosy-cheeked, batting her eyelids above
As the pimp hovered around the bridegroom at the wedding

19. Her tricks to seduce him were endless, as though
She sought to wean him from Safoan's side

20. So she flaunted herself and exposed her blemishes -
Timid, soft-eyed, submissive - how false!

21. I compared her to an arrogant, prancing stud
Knock-kneed, bow-legged, splay-hoofed and bandy

22. Then he came, straight and upright, undamaged
No flaws in either, no defects

23. And both were veiled in mist as though
The tanner had anointed them in his pit

24. And he had given me hearing and - wonder above wonders -
Sight, by the grace of the Creator of ears and eyes