عبثت به الحمّى فوَرَّد جسمَهُ

وَعَكُ الحمى وتلهُّب المحرورِ

Fever toyed with him and made his body rose-red—

the fever’s ague and the burning of the fevered one.

وبدا به الجدريُّ فهْو كلؤلؤٍ

فوق العقيق منضَّد مسطور

Smallpox appeared upon him, like pearls

arrayed in ordered rows upon carnelian.

ونضاه بَنْثره فجاء كعصفرٍ

قد رُشَّ رشاً في بياض حرير

It wore him down by scattering its spots, till he seemed like safflower

sprinkled, spray upon spray, over white silk.

الآن صرت البدر إذ حاكى لنا

كلفَ البدور مواضعُ التجدير

Now you have become the full moon, since, for us,

the pockmarks mimic the mottling of moons.

فكخمرةٍ رُشَّت على تفاحة

أثرٌ يلوح بخدك المجدور

Like wine sprinkled upon an apple

is the mark that gleams upon your pockmarked cheek.

فكأنه ورق المصاحف زانهُ

نَقط وشَكل في خلال عُشور

It is as though it were pages of Qur’anic codices, adorned

with dots and vowel marks amid the ten-verse markers.