1. بموذيةٍ عنا الرّكابُ استقلَّتِ

    فلم أدرِ من بعد النَّوى أين حلّت

    The riding camels departed from us bearing Mudhiyah.

    After the parting, I did not know where she had settled.

  2. أحلَّتْ جنوباً فالحُبيل أم انتحتْ

    أباطحَ عزّ فالحُوى فالحُويّةِ

    Did she settle southward, then at al-Hubayl, or make for

    The gravelly valleys of ʿIzz, then al-Huwa, then al-Huwayyah?

  3. تولَّت فأولتني السَقامَ فلم أكن

    لأسقَمَ حتى أزمَعَتْ فتولَّتِ

    She turned away and left me sick; I would not

    Have sickened until she resolved to leave and departed.

  4. تصدَّتْ لقتلي بالتَّصدي تعمداً

    فلما رأت أن قد أصابته صدَّتِ

    She deliberately sought to kill me by showing herself;

    Then, when she saw she had achieved it, she turned away.

  5. مُهفهفةٌ رادُ الوشاحينِ غادةٌ

    رَدَاحٌ مَيود القدِّ أنَّى تَثنَّتِ

    Slender-waisted, soft beneath her twin sashes, a tender young beauty,

    Full-hipped, her figure swaying however she bends.

  6. تريكَ اهتزازَ الرُّمحِ إن هي أقبلت

    تميسُ ودعصَ الرمل إن هي ولَّتِ

    She shows you a spear's quivering when she approaches,

    Swaying—and a mound of sand when she turns away.

  7. وترنو بعينيْ حُرّةٍ امِّ فَرقدٍ

    أضاعته إِذ خافت عليه فغَنَّتِ

    And she gazes with the eyes of a noble wild cow, mother of a calf,

    Who lost him when she feared for him, and lowed plaintively.

  8. أدْقَّ إِلهي خَلقَها وأجَلّهُ

    فدقَّت كما شاء الإِلهُ وجلَّتِ

    My God made her form both slender and full;

    So she grew slender and full, as God willed.

  9. كأنْ ثناياها إذا غرَّها الكرى

    بمشمولةٍ من خمر عانةَ عُلَّتِ

    As though her front teeth, when slumber beguiled her,

    Had been moistened anew with north-wind-cooled wine from ʿAnah.

  10. أطارت فؤادي إذ أطارَ قِناعَها

    نَسيمُ صُباً من مطلعِ الشمسِ هبَّت

    She sent my heart flying when her veil was sent flying

    By an east-wind breeze blowing from the sunrise.

  11. فماسَتْ حياءً حين حُمّ سُفورُها

    علينا حَياءً فانثنتْ فارجحَّنتِ

    She swayed bashfully when her unveiling was decreed

    Before us; bashfully she bent and swayed heavily.

  12. فظلْتُ كأني شاربٌ صَرخديةَ

    سُلافاً بسَلسالٍ من الماءِ شُجَّتِ

    I remained as though a drinker of Sarkhad wine,

    Pure first-run wine, mingled with sweet, flowing water.

  13. وموذيةٌ أوْضا الملائح طلَعةَ

    وأحمدُها طبعاً إِذا الغيدُ ذُمَّتِ

    And Mudhiyah is the most radiant-faced of beauties,

    And their most praiseworthy in nature when graceful beauties are disparaged.

  14. أسيلةُ خَدِّ لو رأى الوردُ خدها

    أقرَّ اختياراً أنه وردُ جنةِ

    Smooth-cheeked—if the rose saw her cheek,

    It would willingly admit her cheek was a rose of Paradise.

  15. كأنَّ شعاع الشمس تحت قِناعها

    إذا هيَ من تحت القِناع تجلَّتِ

    As though the sun's radiance lay beneath her veil,

    When she revealed herself from beneath the veil.

  16. شَموعٌ دمُ الأبطالِ في وجَناتَها

    فأجفانها المرضى هُريقت فطلُت

    Playful—the blood of champions lies in her cheeks;

    And her eyelids are languid; that blood was shed and left unavenged.

  17. كأنَّ على لبَّاتِها جمرَ مُصطلٍ

    تبدّده ريح الصبَّا في الدّجُنّة

    As though upon her breast lay the embers of someone warming himself,

    Scattered by the east wind in the darkness.

  18. تجنّت على مَهيوبها كي تُريعَه

    وحُقَّ لمهضومِ الحشا لو تجنَّتِ

    She found fault unjustly with the man she held in awe, to frighten him;

    And a slender-waisted beauty has the right to such caprice.

  19. إلى مثلها يرنو الحليمَ صَبابةَ

    إذا في اللباس الأتحميَّ اسبكَرَّتِ

    At one like her the self-possessed man gazes with longing,

    When she stands tall in Atḥamī attire.

  20. تمنيَّتُ أن أبقى هَيوماً بحّبها

    فيارب بلّغ مُنيتي ما تمنَّتِ

    I wished to remain distraught with love for her;

    So, Lord, let my longing attain what it has longed for.