She lets her tresses flow in all the breeze,
  Exhaling sweet perfume.  Thy brows are arched
  In beauty’s curve.  Thy glance is like a ball
  Shot from a Christian’s gun, which hits the mark. 
  Thy cheek is lovely as the morning rose
  Or bright carnation, and thy ruby blood
  Gives it the shining brightness of the sun. 
  Thy teeth are ivory-white, and thy warm kiss
  Is sweet as milk or honey loved by all. 
  Oh, see that neck, more white than palm-tree’s heart,
  That sheath of crystal, bound with bands of gold. 
  Thy chest is marble, and thy tender breasts
  Are apples whose sweet scent makes well the ill. 
  Thy body is, like paper, shining, white,
  Or cotton or fine linen, or, again,
  Just like the snow that falls in a dark night. 
  Hyzyya lets her sash hang gracefully,
  Down-falling to the earth, in fold on fold. 
  Her fine limbs jingle with gems she wears. 
  Her slippers clink with coupled rings of gold.

  We were encamped at Bazer.  Every day
  At dawn I saw the beauty, and we were
  So glad together!  Every dawn I brought
  My wishes to my love and followed fate
  More happy than if I alone possessed
  All riches and all treasures of the earth. 
  Wealth equals not the tinkle of her gems. 
  When I had crossed the mountain there I met
  Hyzyya, and she walked amid the fields
  With every grace, and made her bracelets ring. 
  My reason wandered, heart and head were vexed.

  After a happy summer passed at Tell,
  We came, my dearest one and I, Sahara-ward.

  The litters now are closed, the powder sounds. 
  My gray horse to Hyzyya bears me swift. 
  The palanquin of my coquette’s on route. 
  At Azal when night comes we pitch our tents. 
  Sydy-l-Ahsen is before us now: 
  Ez-Zerga, too.  Then faring on we go
  To Sydy Sayd, and Elmetkeouk,
  And Medoukal-of-palms, where we arrive
  At eventide.  We saddle up at dawn,
  Just when the breeze begins.  Our halting-place,
  Sydy Mehammed, decks this peaceful earth. 
  From there the litters seek El Mekheraf. 
  My charger gray straight as an eagle goes. 
  I wend to Ben Seryer with my love,
  Of tattooed arms.  When we had crossed Djedy
  We passed the wide plain, and we spent the night
  At Rous-et-toual, near the gleaming sands. 
  Ben Djellal was our next day’s resting-place;
  And, leaving there, I camped at El Besbas,
  And last at El-Herymek, with my love.

  How many festivals beheld us then! 
  In the arena my good steed of gray
  Fled like a ghost.  And sweet Hyzyya there,
  Tall as a flagstaff, bent her gaze on me,
  Her smile disclosing teeth of purest pearl. 
  She spoke but in allusions, causing thus
  That I should understand whate’er she meant. 
  Hamyda’s daughter then might be compared
  Unto the morning-star or a tall palm,
  Alone, erect among the other trees. 
  The wind uprooted it, and dashed it down. 
  I did not look to see it fall, this tree
  I hoped forever to protect.  I thought
  That God, divinely good, would let it live. 
  But God, the Master, dashed it to the earth.