«وَاغْضُضِ الطَّرْفَ تَسْتَرِحْ مِنْ غَرَامٍ تَكْتَسِي فِيهِ ثَوْبَ ذُلٍّ وَشَيْنٍ»
Lower your gaze so that consuming desire does not clothe you in humiliation and disgrace.
The speaker turns shame into clothing: a “garment of humiliation and disgrace.” A smooth paraphrase (“avoid embarrassment”) is readable but discards the striking metaphor.
The advice is voiced by Abū Zayd after he has exploited the governor's infatuation. Translation should convey the moral proposition faithfully without treating its speaker as an unimpeachable model. The narrative invites the reader to notice the friction between rhetoric and action.
Translation exercise
Translate the moral advice while keeping the compromised conduct of its speaker in view.