Sol 5.6

  1. O heart, can you find consolation,

    when the one you love has frightened you so?

  2. The one we love has shunned you, and now

    no closeness to him remains for you.

  3. Those whom you loved struck camp,

    and noble camels sped them on, bearing noble riders.

  4. Those gazelles scattered apart,

    and—alas!—a herd among them took fright.

  5. They carried your patience off wherever they pleased,

    for the one you love has frightened you so.

  6. The heart is impassioned in its love for them,

    enamored, while tears pour forth.

  7. My eye, awash with tears, never dries,

    nor does longing’s sigh die down.

  8. O eye, restrain your tears;

    after their departure, longing alone is enough.

  9. I parted from them, and the beloved ones were scattered—

    after union, separation is hard.

  10. I remembered them, and it was as though

    a fire were blazing in my innermost depths.

  11. If only my people knew

    what I suffer and what I pour forth in tears;

  12. or if only they would return to me,

    and a mountain pass enfold us, O Sa‘d.

  13. Alas for this age!

    How many calamities from it have struck me.

  14. Every day there are poured forth

    tears, and a heart is filled with dread.

  15. My anguish and my show of fortitude

    in love are affirmation and negation.

  16. The fresh water at my drinking place is not clear,

    nor is the taste of life sweet.

  17. I reproach time, the great disperser—

    but does reproaching time avail?

  18. The blame belongs to the beloved, since

    they departed; separation itself bears no blame.

Sol 5.6