Farewell

This poem describes the gloomy mood Muslims felt while being expelled from Andalucia, after the fall of Granada:

On the morning they left,
we said goodbye.
filled with sadness,
for the absence to come...

Inside the palanquins,
on the camel's backs.
I saw their faces beautiful as moons,
behind veils of golden cloth...

Beneath the veils,
tears crept like scorpions.
over the fragrant roses,
of their cheeks...

These scorpions do not harm,
the cheek they mark.
they save their sting,
for the heart of the sorrowful lover...

By-Ibn Jakh