أَضحَكَني الحُبُّ وَأَبكاني

وَهاجَ شَوقي طولُ كِتماني

Love made me laugh and cry

Love has made me laugh and has made me weep,

And longing stirred within my secret heart

And the length of my concealment has stirred my yearning,

مِن حُبِّ حَوراءَ رُصافِيَّةٍ

كَرَنَّها غُصنٌ مِنَ البانِ

For a radiant-faced maid, slender as a bough

For the love of a wide-eyed beauty from Rusafa,

Her perfect form, a castle in miniature

Resembling a swaying branch of the ben-tree;

مَخروطَةُ الكُمَّينِ قَصرِيَّةٌ

جِنِّيَّةٌ في خَلقِ إِنسانِ

Elfin in human form, her plaited hair

With tapered sleeves, a creature of the palaces,

Would suit a wanton or adulterer

A Jinni spirit cast in a human form;

مَطمومَةُ الشَعرِ غُلامِيَّةٌ

تَصلُحُ لِلّوطِيِّ وَالزاني

As if from her beauty a pearl shone forth

Her hair is cropped short, in the manner of a boy,

Outstretched in a peasant's hand

Suited for the sodomite and the libertine alike;

كَأَنَّها مِن حُسنِها دُرَّةٌ

بارِزَةٌ مِن كَفِّ دَهقانِ

Or a musk-pod mixed with ambergris

As though, in her loveliness, she were a pearl

Cradled in a leaf of sweet basil.

Displayed upon the palm of a grand Dehqan;

أَو مِسكَةٌ خالَطَها عَنبَرٌ

وَاستَودَعَت طاقَةَ رَيحانِ

Or a morsel of musk mingled with ambergris,

Nestled within a cluster of sweet basil.