Sol 5.6

  1. If the heart complains,

    love has paved the way for your excuse.

  2. Could you but see your place

    within my heart, it would delight you.

  3. Whatever you might command,

    I would never disobey your command.

  4. Were you to grant your lover union,

    what harm could possibly befall you?

  5. In loving you, nothing remains—and nothing do I spare.

    O you who, among all the worlds, possess my bondage,

  6. by your right, do not consent to my release.

    Honor me with a visit;

  7. may God exalt your station.

    And shorten the life of this estrangement;

  8. may God prolong your lives.

    O dwellers to the right of the dune,

  9. my heart has indeed worn away because of you.

    I have no beloved but you;

  10. that alone is sweet to me.

    My masters, is relief near,

  11. that perhaps this anguish may clear?

    Did you see my show of fortitude

  12. in loving you—and so were beguiled by it?

    Passion’s tyranny carries away all my patience;

  13. whenever I try to hide it, my secret speaks out.

    Remain united with me, then, and reap my reward.

  14. I had hoped that you—

    your month and your lifetime—would be mine.

  15. But you forgot, whereas

    I never forgot the remembrance of you.

  16. My masters, I am your lover,

    and I endure whatever may come.

  17. Your peace is like your war to me;

    for passion, like madness, has many forms.

  18. And when I attain your nearness,

    what care I if death comes?

  19. How welcome is all of it, my masters:

    your benefit to me and your harm.

  20. By God, I do not care, if you are pleased,

    whether you choose union with me or refuse.

  21. I am your servant; no blame lies upon you.

    You have indeed been patient—if only I

  22. had been granted your patience.

    Yet I have no patience, my masters,

  23. throughout the long years of your abandonment.

    You are the wellspring of fidelity,

  24. of solemn covenants and pledges.

    If the servant commits a sin or slips,

  25. your generosity is the source of every generosity.

    No blame rests on the master if he pardons,

  26. and he has indeed been named the All-Loving.

    Be gentle with me, and conceal my faults;

  27. nothing will suffice but your concealment.

    By God, were it not for God, we would not have been guided,

  28. nor given charity, nor prayed,

    nor, through the light of the Hashemite, been favored.

  29. For he is the Chosen One in nearness;

    his light is an effusion of your light.

  30. He is the dawning-place of your vision,

    and the trusted keeper of your secret.

Sol 5.6