1. Sulayma visited while darkness pursued
Her trail from the end of her dress as it flowed

2. She hid her smile so the secret was kept
Beware the watcher not waken from sleep

3. Can night conceal one who always shone
With light, to the seer a torch ever-glowed?

4. Had her branch not pulled her when she set out
Cross the gloom, dawn had neared at her goad

5. So I and the living on tenterhooks stayed
Till morn in relief from the dark shadowed road

6. And which of us showed more drunkenness here—
What hand dealt between us the wine that bestowed?

7. Was it her glance, or her down, or was I—
Three blameless yet reeling while morning crowed

8. Then she bent to walk cautiously on
Through swords and spears in her delicate mode

9. To a place where light shone in every room
With the flames of hearts by desire avowed

10. A refuge, gentle and delicate, that
Made bodies weep, bereft of their souls

11. With a meadow, scented from loam like the moist
Mandrake issuing perfume as it showed

12. A wondrous watering-place none had e’er oped
To drench the wayfarer’s limbs, bathe his load

13. Its streams shine to the wanderer in grief
And joy alike, cascade on cascade flowed