أَلمِم بِعَفراءَ إِن أَصحابُكَ اِبتَكَروا

وَسَلهُمُ هَل لَدَيها اليَومَ مُنتَظَرُ

Send word to 'Afra that your friends have come up with a plan,

And ask her if she is expecting us today.

واهاً لِعَفراءَ إِن دارٌ بِها قَرُبَت

فَما أُبالي أَلامَ الناسُ أَم عَذَروا

Woe to 'Afra whose house is so close,

I care not if people blame me or make excuses.

وَإِن تَبِن غَربَةٌ عَنّا بِها قَذَفٌ

فَما تَقَضّى الهَوى مِنّا وَلا الوَطَرُ

If estrangement from us has cast doubt on her,

Passion and fervor will not diminish in me.

خَودٌ مُهَفهَفَةُ الأَعلى إِذا اِنصَرَفَت

تَكادُ مِن ثِقَلِ الأَردافِ تَنتَبِرُ

When she turns her soft cheek, the highest part,

Its heaviness makes her shoulders almost dance.

تَفتَرُّ عَن ذي غُروبٍ طَعمُهُ عَسَلٌ

مُفَلَّجِ النَبتِ رَفّافٍ لَهُ أُشُرُ

Her mouth smells sweetly of gum that oozes

From a tree's split bark flavored like ripened fruit.

كَأَنَّ فاها إِذا ما جِئتَ طارِقَها

خَمرٌ بِبَيسانَ أَو ما عَتَّقَت جَدَرُ

It's as if her mouth when you come visiting her at night

Were wine mixed with resin or freed from its amphora.

شُجَّت بِماءِ سَحابٍ زَلَّ عَن رَصَفٍ

مِن ماءِ أَزهَرَ لَم يُخلَط بِهِ كَدَرُ

She is made smooth with rain water fallen from a pavement

Of untouched azure, no murkiness mixed in.

وَالعَنبَرُ الأَكلَفُ المَسحوقُ خالَطَهُ

وَالزَنجَبيلُ وَرَندٌ هاجَهُ السَحَرُ

The pounded aromatic wood, camphor, is blended with it,

As is ginger and spikenard made potent by dawn.

حَوراءُ مَمكورَةُ الساقَينِ بَهكَنَةٌ

لا عَيبَ في خَلقِها طولٌ وَلا قِصَرُ

She is a beauty, perfectly formed, neither too tall nor too short,

Her legs pressed together like the trunks of palm trees.

كَأَنَّها الشَمسُ وافَت يَومَ أَسعُدِها

أَو دُرَّةٌ شوِّفَت لِلبَيعِ أَو قَمَرُ

She is like the sun on its luckiest day,

Or a pearl examined for sale or the moon.

تَقولُ إِذ أَيقَنَت أَنّي مُفارِقُها

يا لَيتَني مِتُّ قَبلَ اليَومِ يا عُمَرُ

When she knew I would leave her, she said

"Would that I had died before this day, O my life!"