Laudator Temporis Acti

Carmina Burana 177 (tr. G.F. Whicher):

There stood a girl, in red she was gowned,
Her dress if you touched it made a
Swishing sound.
Eia!

Like a little rose-tree there she stood —
Her cheeks blown roses
And her mouth a bud.
Eia!

Stetit puella
rufa tunica;
siquis eam tetigit,
tunica crepuit.
Eia!

Stetit puella
tamquam rosula:
facie splenduit,
et os eius floruit.
Eia!

A poem by Ibn al-Ṣābūnī (13th century; tr. A.J. Arberry):

She is coming, coming,
So soft her tread,
A moon in gloaming
Rose-garmented.

As if her glances
My lifeblood shed,
And wiped their lances
In her robe of red.

Arberry's discussion of Ibn al-Ṣābūnī's poem:

This is a very short poem, and at first reading perhaps appears very simple; the simplicity is a delusion. Take the phrase 'a moon in gloaming': this conjures up images which only a familiarity with Arab convention can illuminate. The 'moon' is the accepted metaphor for a beautiful face, pale and glowing; the 'gloaming' is a reference to the dark tresses which throw into relief the brilliance of the 'moon'. In the second stanza the poet elaborates the well-loved comparison of the glances of the beloved with spears aimed at the lover's heart; his heart is pierced by them, and her robe is crimsoned with his lifeblood. The poet, using hackneyed themes, has combined and refined them into a new and satisfying synthesis.