1. Turn the cup of wine around,
And ask not of me, but ask the cup about my state,

2. As though you had unveiled what lay hidden within me,
Yours is the cup until it made you privy to my secret.

3. I feared the wind would provoke me
And a cup would speak for my tongue without my knowing,

4. But I gave control to a steersman still young,
Who led the ships of wantonness with lowered veils.

5. When I wish, the morn of passion comes to meet me,
Or if I wish the eve of wine pays me a visit.

6. I left not fixing my eyes for a single glance,
Convinced the eye is a betrayer of my secret.

7. We made glances of affection between us
Snares to catch a tender moment, subtler than sorcery,

8. So through them I recognise union in the softness of their look
And through them I recognise estrangement in their cold glance

9. Each day I dread their rejection
So I sleep a sinner and wake absolved,

10. And like waves crashing, the high seas hurl their foam,
With the rattle that pains the prudent and the heedless,

11. Embedded in them are whales that vanish and emerge
To feast on provisions from a wreck or broken parts,

12. When the south wind embraces them, their maidens assemble,
Or they stand with the wind, ceasing their flow,

13. As though the swell traversing their sides
Were a youth wandering among the reddish sand dunes

14. I unveiled the dark horrors and saw the unknown
In a carried maiden, pregnant, never wed,

15. The billows have lashed her cheeks until
Her lips stood still and her throat was slit

16. When she comes, she is watched by a gazelle's neck
And when she leaves by a pair of eagles' tails

17. The captain keeps away from her as though
He walks cautiously down a rough mountain

18. She disappears behind the waves' face
Hidden by a veil behind a veil,

19. She emerged with two oars flanking her
As the bridle's curb checked her from behind

20. She hovered briefly then passed as though
An eagle that swooped down from the sky to its nest

21. Her guide managed her, pulling her reins taut,
His grip firm, his back sturdy,

22. If she disobeyed, her stallion eased for her
Making her his, though she knew it not,

23. As though when the breeze met her
It told tales of a bride's walk to the bridal chamber

24. We rode the night for four parts of the night
And she arrived at the sixth with little time before dawn

25. She had barely reached land before her scout gave tidings
And she attained the colour of parched wood

26. Until the waves cloaked her sides
In a gown of green seaweed weave

27. She frightened away their horrors from their eyes
So they spent the mysterious night haunted by ghosts

28. She heads for the place of longing where none can
Repel her when her feet tread the soils of travel

29. We rode the sea from the rear
Taking us from sea to sea after the sea