Sol 5.6

  1. O passion that has come to me at the end of life,

    the heart remembers what once was in youth.

  2. I have fallen in love with a gazelle who has ensnared me

    in the snares of his gaze.

  3. He granted me the plucking of a ripe, radiant rose,

    and the sipping of sweet, fragrant, cool honey.

  4. Oh, his beauty—and the wine’s perfume upon his lips,

    like musk sprinkled over a pure strand of pearls!

  5. How lovely, too, the down appearing upon his cheeks:

    a hedge enclosing a garden of blossoms.

  6. Roses that redouble one’s love for him,

    and narcissi adorned with dark-fringed, lustrous eyes.

  7. Within him lies a subtle meaning, perceived

    only by a youth who prizes the mind, not outward forms.

  8. A deep affinity has grown firm between our two souls;

    therefore they agree in coming and going.

  9. And in the embrace of our two bodies you behold a wonder:

    two who appear as one to anyone who looks.

  10. Through him I have no need of any beautiful woman;

    whoever attains the reality itself pays no heed to its trace.

Sol 5.6