Sol 5.6

  1. O censor, how long will you reproach me over him?

    How long—how very long—will you rebuke me?

  2. If what I suffer of youthful infatuation were in you,

    you would surely excuse me.

  3. The one who has melted my body

    with his smile, his neck, and his eyelids

  4. is a full moon upon a slender bough,

    fashioned of melody and softness,

  5. with all the tender, freshly plucked narcissus

    and roses and jasmine one could desire.

  6. His eyes assail my heart,

    and death lies in the eyes’ assault.

  7. The sweetest life I knew

    was in the days when they made me master of debauchery.

  8. I was a skilled expert in it,

    and quietly led the people on.

  9. How many a gazelle I took by force,

    how many a beauty my right hand possessed!

  10. People hastened toward my house

    from every land, seeking me out.

  11. This one arrived with a robe of silk,

    and that one arrived with a Tūnī robe;

  12. this one offered a ransom, and that one brought a gift;

    that one departed, and this one came to me.

  13. Every precious darling found the way to my courtyard

    more surely than birds find their nests.

  14. My disposition was agreeable to them:

    I would slap them, and then they would slap me.

  15. The people have agreed that my folly

    is better than my chastity and faith.

  16. For an age I lived relying on my reason,

    and people kept their distance from me then.

  17. But since I began playing the fool,

    my folly has clothed me, and my madness has supported me.

  18. And among my afflictions is Abū ʿUmayr,

    exposing me to death—

  19. ever erect, never sleeping for a moment,

    never quieting his moan.

  20. Whoever else has a wife—as for me,

    to my misery, my wife is my right hand.

  21. Little ʿUmayra has grown so calloused

    that, by God, I fear they will flog me.

  22. So fear God in dealing with my plight:

    divorce her from me and find me a wife!

Sol 5.6