1. My eyelids and lovesick heart were stirred
By a lightning that illuminated Tunisia

2. And woe if he had not been steadfast, he would have known
I do not conceal what stirs my passions

3. Who is this, whose mouth
Emits cool poetry, glowing on that mustache?

4. You made the heart share its doctrine
Bursting out from a pocket and flames

5. May God protect you from an impostor
Whose garb feigns a lover and beloved

6. If your path brought you a thorny problem
My hot tears will be like embers

7. Or if passion afflicted you, my passion burns with fever
It has always had a glowing complexion

8. The fire of my passion and my tears combined
And I see your glance sometimes alluring

9. My tears yellowing both cheeks
And my tears revive the barren land

10. Leave off unproven claims
Not every player is serious

11. Passion's sovereign has an ardor
Whoever it protects becomes prey to guards

12. It is the rule of love to submit
The lion of the jungle to the doe of the thicket

13. His face shines under the veil of his forelock
A moon in the sunset of his cheek

14. As if the mole on his cheek
Is a chaste narcissus bent with shame

15. Fearing its delicacy will spill
When the mirror glances its way

16. It composes pearls when it smiles
Then casts them in the finest diction

17. You would think the scattered and composed
Were the east wind’s rapture with a goblet

18. The temptation of eyes seeking him
Continues evening and morn

19. And the letters of magic from his gaze
Manifest in arrows and unsheathed blades

20. How could his seducing eyelid
Refrain from lashing like a wing?

21. Revel then and get drunk on a rosy cheek and halo
Delighting in a glance or breath

22. The mouth is love and the halo is
Bacchus in cups of rapture

23. A twig the dawn adorned with beauty's blossom
Bending its branches in refusal

24. Inclining in its allure all it desired
Not seeking but to bend and tilt

25. The censor strayed in it between sun, stars, and crescent
Modestly its branch bent and its bend twisted

26. That is the spirit of magic or spirit of the halo
Intoxicating imaginations in those who never tasted

27. It brought to life the meadows
With the name of the mouth and gold dust

28. It perfumed the breeze of dawn
And made it obscure the rays of comets

29. And behold the orange blossoms, green of sky
Raising stars amid suns

30. Or from fire, its villages produce fused honey
And behold the lilies in their robes

31. Like partridges in a stimulating garden
And behold the larkspur in its hues

32. Like bees extending their wings
And behold the acacia on its branches

33. Pearls atop spears, bending them
As if dawn revealed a wrist

34. In a bracelet of crescent, most exquisite
This, stamped with fresh syrup

35. A mold with the sun, back of constellations
And behold Numan, such a rosy cheek

36. As if the mole upon it were made more expensive
Resembling an arak-stained cup

37. With traces of kohl running down it
Or the gleam of a goblet, appearing tinted

38. With shards of tar in it, visible
The feast of the garden returned; witness a season

39. In which the desires of souls were fulfilled
Its flowers from earth to sky now ripe

40. With a perfume from the trees planted
Its bright horizon smooth and polished

41. After frowning awhile and hiding
Dyed with the elixir of the noble

42. The silver of clouds flowed like gold
And pure water shone on the cheek of a fawn

43. A fire refined in leaping flames
And behold the stream, how modestly

44. Its banks withdrew into solitude
Ever gently flowing until it vanished Out of sight from the biting winds

45. Flowing to match an unhurried breath
Stirring comforts out of misery

46. Kissing, adhering to the way of trees
It is of granite in basins of clay

47. Yet studded with rubies of flowers
And pebbles of pearls surrounding them

48. So the greenery is scattered from it
A necklace of stars, clustering the two moons

49. This is a green garden of sky
Its boys watered with goblets

50. Its maidens, drawing forth orderly cypress,
In solicitude and burning cares

51. These birds in its greenery
Nesting in shade and bliss

52. Are like angels in its expanse
Arranging praises in verse

53. Rousing souls from slumber
With melodies they compose there

54. Good fortune awakened sleeping desires
Vanquished the drowsing of burning eyes

55. What heart has it not forcibly stirred
Shattering languor and sleepy eyes?

56. So draw on the stamina of thriving effort
And climb to the peak of lofty honor

57. And sit firmly in the seat of serious labor
And rely on the towering glory of glorious deeds

58. Preferring in resolve the praise of al-Arihi
The mysterious, shining, brilliant one

59. For praise he is a meadow of generosity
Like the bird's rapture with a lush garden

60. If he frowned in face of the darkest plight
The full moon smiled in a starry night

61. Raising for generous hands scattering pearls
Flashing in the dark night like flags

62. And revealing for thanks a flowering meadow It fills hopes with promises
Sublime is one who depicted in its making

63. The surah "In Praise" recited by all
Never, before reaching awareness

64. Did the ambitious yearn for loftier glory
Refined by nature, ensconced in wisdom

65. Like a spring flowing through highlands
O you nestled in the bloom of gardens

66. I nestle in the bloom of speech
If you are seduced by alluring glances

67. I am seduced by fine diction
In my heart knowledge's pools have flooded

68. And I have quenched my thirst in their sweet stream
The spark of my thought, whenever worry appears

69. My words sparkle with glowing passion
The ears ravish whenever

70. The breath of life stirs in them
Though it has a melody as al-Husayn pleased

71. For the lovelorn it is morning draught and vying
Amazing, beyond the finest pleasures

72. Every soul and heart in turmoil
When its secret shines on the lobes

73. I do not see poetry as uttered words
Flowing sweetly into hearing and forgetting

74. Rather, I see poetry as a place made secure
Where breaths cling to souls

75. Say to whoever tried to shame me in verse
The composer of water and jewels are not equal

76. Lest the paltry mosquito become proud
Though for the Creator it is lead on reins

77. Perhaps my words have provoked an enemy
And related diamond to crystal and pearl

78. I brought down the words of Ibn Sahl
After they wandered an age in the sky of the people

79. And I spurned what is attributed to Granada
If the tongue of religion forgot

80. He missed the ladder of being's causes
To the one perfected in every art

81. And discerned in its spheres the wisdom
Of the evident in diffusion and concealment

82. And beware of hiding through excess of elucidation
And cross the dark night to what is living

83. Does the doe of passion know that the heart of an ardent lover protects it from the thicket?
So it is in heat and throbbing just as

84. The breeze of morn played with embers