1. May God preserve a life for whose grace I came away giving thanks—

    with a graceful maiden to whom I complained of love, and she did me justice.

  2. When she walked with a swaying grace, the spear-shafts feared her motions;

    hers is a slender figure like the boughs of the moringa tree.

  3. She never glanced save with a languid, deep-dark eye,

    as though a keen, sharp blade were drawn to cleave men's heads.

  4. I looked at her while the slanderers were unaware,

    and the bonds of love between us were drawing together.

  5. So do not, you two, condemn me for loving her; for through her

    I learned of love what no one else knows.

  6. I nearly made her cheek bleed with my gazing eyes,

    but God willed instead that today they should shed tears.

  7. She has filled my eyes with beauty in its entirety;

    the sun itself is only her likeness when beauty is described.

  8. Those nights when we feared nothing that might arouse suspicion—

    for nights like those, let the grieving grieve.

  9. Through them she traded words with me, and I would bend away

    as though a potent draught of wine had made me sway.

  10. She said, “A lover’s ruin lies in the one he loves.”

    I told her, “Yes, consuming passion destroys.”

  11. The reproachers rebuke me over her in their ignorance;

    were it not for you, I would not be one whom anyone reproached.

  12. I came away—and, by God, I did not know

    whether I was sipping wine or the nectar of her mouth.

  13. We spent the night as we desired, and as love desired for us,

    while the wine-jugs passed the night bleeding forth their vintage.

Sol 5.6