بأبي من رأيته يتثنى

فهو من لينه يحل ويعقد

By my father, whom I saw bending,

So pliant is he, binding and loosing,

حسدوه على الجمال فقالوا

أعرج والمليح مازال يحسد

They envied his beauty and said,

"He limps," though the beautiful are ever envied.

هو غصنٌ والحسن في الغصن النا

عم ما كان مائلاً يتأود

He's a bough, and beauty's in the bending bough,

Not in the upright, unresponsive tree.