The tips of silk tresses that outline your face
Make an ebony frame to set off your skin.
Each lock has a sister and the two interlace,
With serpentine grace encircling your chin.

Your two flashing eyes are a soul-stirring sight
And each has ten thousand great elephants' might.
There's a rosy-hued bud on each breast round and white,
Glimpsed through a fabric transparently thin.

Your features the Goddess of Fortune amaze,
White houris and angels at such beauty gaze.
Golden bracelets with amber and diamonds ablaze
Clasp your delicate wrists with their velvety skin.

My heart she has hidden, where, nobody knows.
But my mind and my faith go wherever she goes.
Her cheek is of ivory, tinted with rose,
Couched in soft hair and each curl has a twin.

My name is Vagif, to my dear one I say,
I keep watch on the road through the night and the day!
Oh, queen of all beauties, will you not come my way?
You are breaking my heart—and that is a sin...

Translated by Tom Botting

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