وَخَدٌّ كَقِرْطَاسِ الشَّآمِيِّ وَمِشْفَرٌ
كَسِبْتِ الْيَمَانِي قَدُّهُ لَمْ يُجَرَّدِ
Her cheek is as smooth as fine Syrian writing paper, and her lip resembles a neatly cut strip of Yemeni prepared leather, even along its edge.
Khadd is the cheek; qirṭās al-Shāmī evokes smooth, fine Syrian paper. In the second hemistich mishfar names an animal’s lip rather than a human mouth.
The leather-strip image points to precision and evenness of cutting. The two comparisons are related but not identical: the paper stresses the cheek’s smooth surface; the prepared leather emphasizes the lip’s cleanly formed edge.