يا ماسِحَ القُبلَةِ مِن خَدِّهِ

مِن بَعدِ ما قَد كانَ أَعطاها

O you who wiped the kiss from his cheek

O you who wipes the kiss from his cheek,

After you had given it to him

After having so generously bestowed it,

خَشيتَ أَن يَعرِفَ إِعجامَها

مَولاكَ في الخَدِّ فَيَقراها

You feared that your beloved

You feared your master might decipher its script,

Would recognize its imprint on his cheek and read it

Upon the cheek, and thereby read it.

وَلَو عَلِمنا أَنَّهُ هَكَذا

كُنّا إِذا بُسنا مَسَحناها

If only we had known that this would be so

Had we but known that this was the way,

Whenever we kissed, we would have wiped it away

We would have wiped it ourselves the moment we kissed,

فَصارَ فيها رَسمُها باقِياً

يَعرِفُها مَن يَتَهَجّاها

Leaving its trace remaining

So that its trace would remain inscribed,

So it could be recognized by whoever sought it

Recognized by anyone who spells it out.

وَلا تَرَكناها عَلى حالِها

وَلامُها مِنها مَحَوناها

And we would not have left it as it was

We would not have left it in its original state,

Or erased it after imprinting it

But would have erased the letter 'L' from within it,

فَكانَ باقي الإِسمِ لي قُبَّةٌ

بِالفَتحِ في خَدِّكَ مَجراها

Thus the remainder of the name would have been a dome

So the remainder of the word would be a 'dome' for me,

With an opening in your cheek as its course

With the open vowel finding its course upon your cheek.