1. From the perfumes of youth did the zephyr exhale,
And memory of youth did his spirit regale,

2. Ever flashed the lightning its glamour and light,
Provoking his tear till it streamed from his sight.

3. Can the sad captive control his poor tears?
O my friend, if I'm frantic - my madness is clear.

4. If I master my grief, I but show my soul's strength;
And if mourning assail me, I take it by length.

5. Today is for wine, and tomorrow - who knows?
Let the noble man smile though life buffet his nose.

6. The nights have deflected harsh blows from my head,
No hurt has the storm of mishap on me spread.

7. My days I beguile imagining vain things inane,
My nights I outwear, for slow plods every star's wane,

8. Till one weary star at the pallid dawn goes its way.
Cordova beautiful - is there hope you'll be mine?

9. Can a heart scorched with love by your glances refine?
Can your mild-mooned nights make me their frequenter?

10. When loveliness' vision and mirth's apprehension
Are yours, and existence itself your purveyor?

11. Strange I'm revived when the gale blows from you here
As though I'd forgot the soft wind of your land,

12. As though the cleft hadn't closed in your mountain-cleft;
As though I was not moulded first from your sand,

13. Nor shrouded all over by airs of your fand.
Your day is bright-faced and your night is soft-eyed,

14. Your soil is day-spring and your branch is green-tied.
Your earth is clad when your air is bare,

15. Your scent is spirit - your streams bring hearts repair.
Shall I forget days caparisoned with delight

16. When we wore the sprigged apricot day and night,
When towards all the senses' joys we marched ahead

17. While security wrapped us as raiment, and hatred fled?
Where kindness was meet, and hostility marred.

18. The generous Spring clad it in pearls and green,
To it the gentle-breathing winds grew keen;

19. Its sons found sweet the fruits of life serene,
Still greet we old friends at dusk or dawn's sheen.

20. Salutations to those battle-plains, though abandoned!
My friends, more will come though the present host parts.

21. Each predecessor only cedes to his successor.
I watch the days - feeble may trade with finer arts.

22. Congratulations on an affair, when it thrives or smarts!
I became embittered so Freeman embittered grew,

23. And I began to grieve so Sorrow I withdrew.
Despair sat firm in my wonted heart's reign

24. Though in a land where I was held mean,
And who aims, like me, for base things will get meaner.

25. Don't let my enemies gloat at my jail-gloom,
For I've seen the sun sheathe itself in night-fume;

26. I was but a scimitar wrathful in its sheath,
A lion in the jungle, a hawk in its booth,

27. The trout hid in the corrie's depths - its glint doctored!
My creed scorns all cants from each bigot Dissenter

28. To each broad, mild breast more gentle and centre'd.
It gleams like a crescent, gold-inlaid and tender,

29. Eclipsing in sheen the moon when it's fulgent.
It knows its bright halo's the finer and pleasanter.

30. I sorrow - no rest; though rest my cause furnishes.
The strings I touch not though they thrill for my fingers.

31. I breathe out no moan though grief I go under.
Naught's mine since we parted but news of you - echos.

32. May kind words from your quarters keep arriving!
You've enjoyed days whose smooth moments please ya,

33. The world's your oyster, peeled of sneezers.
Safe from its rebukes or its bore you're sealed,

34. Still one of you wraps the silk of its fields,
And sanctions the virgin of wishes, at ease, a

35. New flower whose essence no coughs overlay.
I praised the days whose midnights and noons

36. Were free, excellent - never marred, never strown.
You wandered delighted through life's saloons

37. While security granted you permanent boons,
And fate was your garden, each hour a new bloom.

38. We visited, coming and going again,
A meadow whose name was Spring's Charm, Summer's Den -

39. The zephyr, the meadow's brisk bridegroom, blew in;
A sweet smile he had, and vermeil-red cheek and chin,

40. And fingers that, lifting the wine-cup, looked slender and lean.
We rose and walked over the bridge's breadth,

41. To the Christian quarter midst convent and wreath,
And on to the shore, avoiding all danger and skirving,

42. Where blows the wind laden with fragrance, its way swerving.
High above, the lamps of Naur sprayed scent unbegrudging.

43. Those excellent days amidst Mansi's halls,
Or Nasih's castle - what memories it recalls!

44. How Zaba breezed through those wide acres and spalls,
Rustling the necklace of tumbling waterfalls!

45. You could see the sun gleam as it slid from the walls.
Fair Zahra, superb of insight, vital of soul!

46. How subtle the breath, how unblemished the whole!
A paradise, Eden - whatever you call

47. The vision that beautifies, lengthens the days of my scroll
Till time itself to your perfume is grateful and dulcet and droll.

48. I mourn covenants, though they now seem so old,
Milder than blossoms, tranquil and controlled.

49. Donned we the sprigged apricot, purple and gold.
Marched we to joy though the trumpets of war rolled,

50. While security wrapped us and hatred was doled.