Is she good fortune? Is she milk?

Is she buttermilk? [here implying something you take as a surfeit] Is she daily sustenance?

Is she the question [in the riddle]? Is she the answer [to the riddle]?

Is she respect? Is she a weighty, thoughtful thing?

 

Is she clouds which have gathered together in the gu' season

and will not become a clear sky? [This refers to clouds gathering to give rain in the main rainy season showing that there is still more moisture in the sky to fall]

Is she a long throw [feleg bad luck; xiddigays]

Jupiter of/and Mars? [This is a reference to some astronomical occurrence which presumably predicts good rain.]

 

Is she fresh [plant] growth?

Is she the early morning sunlight

which, with the arrows of redness,

caused the dew to be afraid

and scattered the [early morning] mist?

 

Is she pure water which gathers together? [in pools after it has rained]

Is she a light [i.e. moonlit] night during which

the full pools

invited the stars and the sky, which is where the moon has come from (?)

[and] in the manner of a mirror

blinds you from the land?

Is she fresh growth cleaned by the water on the land [that has fallen as rain]

and the grass of Ceeg [we think this is a place name neither of us know this word nor can find it anywhere, needs further checking]

the clean water which has laid down? [the word used is one when you lay down to sleep]

 

My goodness! Is she proportionate; [in her character, stature and shape]

fragrance and perfume;

Samsam who has been put together in that way / put together in the way of Samsam? [cf. caynka here al-'ayn]

Is she great respect? [The grammar of these four lines is subtly different to the previous questions implying, I think, that the question is more rhetorical than the previous ones. An exclamation mark after respect in line 27 might be more appropriate.]

 

She is not a weak fool.

She is not a shameful, lazy person.

She is not a stubborn person of bad behaviour.

She is not a spinster no one goes to for hospitality.

She is not a mouldy bad wife.

She is not cirir stars which are months of 29 days. [in the Muslim lunar calendar [here he seems to be referring to an astronomical configuration during which no rain falls]

She is not [a woman showing her] private parts who walks around. [i.e. an immodest woman in dress]

She is not a fat woman from whom one flees.

And she has not grown thin.

Bring her to any person and

a place [on her] about which one complains and

a defect cannot be found.

O Cabdi! [Cabdi Qays a famous poet who had seen the woman with Hadraawi] The steps; [she takes; i.e. the way she walks]

I say "Cutiya". [i.e. I call her "Cutiya" a woman's name which means the one who walks elegantly]

 

In the evening she combs her [individual] hair[s]

to the end [i.e. to the end of each hair]

which the breeze plays with

and which the male ostriches [i.e. young men] give the eye to.

Her eyes which are those of the Soemmering's gazelle;

[She is] the colour of the mas-ciideed;[a brown coloured snake of which the colour is regarded as being that of the most beautiful skin tone]

the bridge of the nose: that of a black horse; [i.e. she has a very straight bridge to her nose]

her hair firebrands; [these are made from certain plants and are used in the countryside to clean out milk vessels; here the reference is to their black colour]

her gums charcoal; [black gums are a sign of beauty]

those teeth whiteness;

her cheeks with soft hair; [fine soft hair on the cheeks is a sign of beauty]

the waist [as thin as] the tip of a spear;

the upper arms showing elegant movement;

she is heavy in the calves;

the amber of her neck [a reference to the colour]

splits up into rolls. [having small rolls along the neck is a sign of beauty, not a double chin, just light creases]

She is a Houri.

Every time [I look] from head to toe

I do not see a part I [can] discriminate against.

 

She was not born to impatience.

Anger has not been attributed to her.

"She is a bothersome person/a pest" has not been said.

Her tongue does not know lies

or insults.

I have not heard anyone complaining about her.

She is not loud she is a girl / young woman.

Modesty is her custom.

In age she is still a child.

In intelligence she is a mature person.

And she has a bright future.

 

And I do not reject her.

And that praiseworthy unmarried woman

on the throne of beauty

I install with garlands of leaves [and flowers].

And you, Hadraawi, [cadar]

recite verses of congratulation for her!