1. ما بالُ هذا الجسم يا فتنتي

    مَنْ سرقَ الديباجُ من حبسِ

    What ails this body, O my enchantress?

    Whom did the brocade steal from confinement?

  2. وبعضهُ في كفنٍ واسعٍ

    وبعضهُ في ضيقِهِ الرمسِ

    And part of it is in a spacious shroud,

    And part of it in its narrow grave.

  3. لكلِّ شيءٍ حسنٍ زينةٌ

    وزينةُ الخمرةِ في الكاسِ

    Every beautiful thing has an adornment,

    And wine's adornment lies in the cup.

  4. والبدرُ في ديباجةٍ يجتلى

    وأنتِ في عشرٍ وفي خمسِ

    And the full moon is beheld in a robe of brocade,

    While you wear ten, and five besides.

  5. شريعةٌ تنسخُ من يومها

    كلَّ الذي قد شرعتْ أمسِ

    A law that, on its very day, repeals

    All that it had enacted yesterday.

  6. ولو تزيدُ الحسنَ أثوابُهُ

    لبانَ نقصَ الحسنِ في الشمسِ

    And if its garments increased beauty,

    A lack of beauty would show in the sun.

  7. أهانتِ الغاداتُ أهلَ الهوى

    وهنَّ قد هُنَّ على نفسي

    The lovely maidens have humiliated lovers,

    And they have become contemptible to me.

  8. فأعينُ القومِ وأذيالها

    مصلحةٌ للرشِ والكنسِ

    So the men's eyes and her hems

    Form a department for sprinkling and sweeping.