وذات دل كأن البدر صورتها — Bashar Ibn Burd

And a woman of coy charm, as though the full moon were her likeness,

spent the night singing to a drunken, lovesick man:

Indeed, those eyes with their deep black and brilliant white

slew us, then did not bring our slain back to life.

So I said: Well done, O my desire and my hope!

So let me hear more; may God reward you with goodness.

Oh, how lovely a mountain is Mount al-Rayyan!

And how lovely is al-Rayyan's dweller, whoever they may be!

She said: Then how about—may my soul be your ransom—something better than

this, for one lovesick at heart and bewildered?

O people, my ear is in love with someone of the tribe;

and the ear sometimes falls in love before the eye.

So I said: Well done! You are the rising sun;

you have kindled fires in my heart and entrails.

So let me hear a delightful, lilting song

that deepens a lovesick lover's sorrows over you.

Oh, if only I were sliced apples,

or were a sprig of basil among the basil shoots,

so that, when she caught my scent and it pleased her,

while we were alone, I would be given human form.

Then she strummed her lute, then swayed in delight,

singing to its accompaniment, then keeping none of the song concealed:

I have become the most obedient of all God's creatures

to the one who defies me most of all in love.

So I said: You have delighted us, O adornment of our gathering!

So give us more, for you are foremost among us in kindness.

Had I known that love would kill me,

I would have prepared shrouds for myself before meeting you.

Then she sang the drinking companions a delightful song in ramal rhythm,

kindling joy and drawing tears from the eye in varied ways:

God does not kill one whose affection remains constant,

and God sometimes kills the treacherous.

Do not reproach me, for remembering her leaves me

drunk—do the sober reproach a drunken man?

I did not know what she was like while I was awake—she knew this—

though I had sometimes dallied with her in sleep.

She spent the night offering me her mouth, and I kissed it—

a female jinn wed in sleep to a human being.