1. خلِّ القلوبَ لما بها

    تصبو إلى أحبابها

    Leave hearts to what is within them;

    they yearn for their beloveds.

  2. من أرضهم خُلقتْ فنا

    زعتها الهوى لترابها

    From their earth they were created, and so

    longing drew them toward its dust.

  3. كم قطعتْ ذاتَ الحجا

    بِ قلوبنا بحجابها

    How often the veiled woman has torn

    our hearts with her veil!

  4. هيفاءُ إن خطرتْ فغص

    نُ البانِ في أثوابها

    Slender-waisted—when she sways, she is a bough

    of the bān tree within her robes.

  5. وإذا أمطتَ نقابها

    فالشمسُ تحتَ نقابها

    And when you draw aside her veil,

    then the sun is beneath her veil.

  6. والسحرُ في تلكَ العيو

    نِ يلوحُ من أهدابها

    And enchantment in those eyes

    gleams from her lashes.

  7. والوردُ في وجناتها

    يندى بماءِ شبابها

    And the rose upon her cheeks

    is moistened by the water of her youth.

  8. جمعتْ فنونَ التيهِ والإ

    دلالِ في إعجابها

    She has gathered the arts of haughtiness and

    coquetry in her self-admiration.

  9. فغذا رأتْ سربَ المهى

    تاهتْ على أترابها

    Then, when she sees a herd of oryx,

    she looks down proudly on her peers.

  10. وإذا رأتْ أهلَ الهوى

    عزتْ على طلابها

    And when she sees those in love,

    she is beyond her suitors' reach.

  11. وإذا رنتْ غدتِ القلو

    بُ تفرُّ من أصحابها

    And when she gazes, the hearts begin

    to flee from their owners.

  12. سكرى القوامِ كأنما

    ثَمِلَتْ بِخمرِ رِضابها

    Drunken in her bearing, as though

    she had grown drunk on the wine of her saliva.

  13. عاتبتها يومَ النوى

    وحملتُ إثمَ عتابها

    I reproached her on the day of parting,

    and bore the sin of reproaching her.

  14. فمشتْ وأوقفني الهوى

    أبكيهِ بعدَ ذهابها

    Then she walked away, and love held me still,

    weeping for it after her departure.