فللظَّهْر من حَلبٍ منزلٌ

تُثابُ العيونُ على حَجِّهِ

On Aleppo’s upland is a dwelling-place

whose pilgrimage earns the eyes reward.

أَعِدْ نحو جوشنِهِ نظرةً

إلى بيعتيه إلى بُرْجِه

Cast another glance toward its Jawshan,

toward its two churches, toward its tower,

إلى بانقوساهُ تلك التي

حكتْ راكباً لاح من فَجِّه

toward its Bāniqūsā—that place which

resembled a rider looming from its mountain pass—

لترتاضَ نَفْسُكَ في رَوضِهِ

ويمرحَ طَرفُكَ في مَرْجِه

so that your soul may roam through its garden

and your gaze gambol in its meadow.

وقد نَظمَ الروضُ سِمطَيْه من

سنانِ قُويقٍ إلى زُجِّه

The garden has strung its twin necklaces from

Quwayq’s spearpoint to its butt-spike:

كفرجِكَ خَفقتانَ وشيٍ بدا

بياضَ الغلالة من فرجه

like your sex—two fluttering folds of brocade—and there showed

the whiteness of the shift through its slit.