Never do I approve the temper of one who has tasted love’s flavor only to forget it thereafter.
My eye, to its own misfortune, cast glances that coincided with the appointed moment.
A slender maiden—when I pictured her before me she left me as a proverb in passion.
I feared (1) that I might burn her (2) when she saw my head already aflame.
Would that we had met (3) the swords and never met those wide, dark eyes!
They leveled their swaying sides (4) just as we leveled our battered lances.
Aided by beauty, they swept away every heart already vanquished by love.
From the same poem:
Then they said (5): “We shall leave her as plunder for love or as a free gift.”
I replied: “What, when it still clings (6) to the Commander of the Faithful? Never!”
He also said:
Longing summoned my heart, the mounts, and the caravan; they all answered—and my heart was the first to comply.
And from it:
They say, “Treat the heart so that it may renounce passion.” I said, “Excellent advice—if only I still possessed a heart!”
106. al-Ḥaḍramī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad*
The judge of Alexandria: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn