يا غُلاماً يَوَدُّ كِت

مانَ أَمرٍ لَهُ فَشا

O youth who desires concealment of a matter causing him anguish,

O young lad desiring the concealment

Do you think that aloofness from me was defiance or bashfulness?

Of a secret affair that has already spread wide

أَتَرى أَنَّ ما بِنا

صَمَمٌ عَنكَ أَو عَشا

We have seen your expertise in barely perceptible intimate discourse,

Do you imagine that what afflicts us

And your companionship in softness when you fear harshness.

Is deafness regarding you, or blindness?

قَد رَأَينا اِختِصاصَ طَر

فِكَ بِاللَمحِ خَنبَشا

Words that in their phrasing are either gentle or embellished,

We have observed the devotion of your eye

Tell me, may I ransom you, O my soul, O emulator of sprinkling.

In casting glances towards Khanbasha

وَتُواليكَ بِالرِقا

عِ إِذا خِفتَ مِن وَشا

Why do you choose companions, powerless, blind and deaf?

And how he plies you with written notes

Do you not restrain yourself from the wrong, in the path of the misguided one who walked

Whenever you fear a slanderer

حاكِياتٍ بِلَفظِها

عُروَةً أَو مُرَقَّشا

And found censure lost, so he pastured on it and became cautious?

Notes that mimic, in their wording,

Then he twisted his beard, stretching from it and shaking off.

The eloquence of Urwa or al-Muraqqash

خَبِّرَنّي فَدَتكَ نَف

سي أَيا مُشبِهَ الرَشا

So if you see him while the scruff is recalcitrant,

Tell me—may my soul be your ransom,

You’d say a shepherd filled up then went to herd rams.

O you who resemble the young fawn—

لِمَ تَختارُ أُنوكاً

خامِلَ القَدرِ أَعمَشا

Why would you choose a fool,

Of obscure standing and watery eyes?

أَوَما تَرعَوي عَنِ ال

غَيِّ في شَرِّ مَن مَشى

Will you not desist from this error

Regarding the vilest wretch who ever walked?

وَجَدَ اللَومَ ضائِعاً

فَرَعى فيهِ وَاِختَشى

He found that reproach was wasted on him,

So he grazed within it, yet grew fearful

ثُمَّ أَلوى بِلِحيَةٍ

مَدَّ مِنها وَنَفَّشا

Then he twisted a beard,

Which he tugged at and teased out

فَإِذا ما رَأَيتَهُ

وَهوَ مُستَفحِلُ الحَشا

So that when you behold him

Swelling his gut like a stallion,

قُلتَ راعٍ مُمَلأً

راحَ يَستاقُ أَكبُشا

You would say: "A stuffed shepherd

Setting out to drive his rams."