Sol 5.6

  1. He remembered separation from Nudar and could not endure;

    a companion to sorrow, he sought forgetfulness but could not attain it.

  2. He kindled a fire within his heart, already blazing,

    and a torrent of tears poured down like rain.

  3. Nudar, you made me drink a cup of anguish:

    it is loathsome patience—or bitterer still in taste.

  4. Nudar, you have left me beset by calamities;

    whenever they begin to recede, others rally to join them.

  5. Nudar, know that in heart and body

    I remain with you; travel brings me no repose.

  6. I recite the Book of God, silently and aloud,

    over you, and pray at evening and at dawn.

  7. I shall weep for you as long as a spirit remains in this body,

    and neither weariness nor vexation shall ever overtake me.

  8. I am not like one who mourned his two beloveds for an age,

    then said, when weeping and sleeplessness had wearied him:

  9. “For one year—then peace be upon you both;

    whoever weeps a full year has surely offered due excuse.”

  10. But I shall weep for you when we meet together,

    and my eye beholds your radiant, moonlike face,

  11. and I delight in the beauty of your conversation—for truly

    your conversation is the heart’s solace, and the hearing’s and the sight’s.

  12. Among all girls there is none like Nudar, nor has she

    any peer to be seen among nomads or townsfolk.

  13. A woman of sober judgment—were any intellect compared with hers,

    it would be as though ruby had been measured against stone.

  14. An accomplished reciter of the Qur’an’s verses, adorned by its proper inflection;

    for its inflection is the ornament of recitation, set with pearls.

  15. A transmitter, from the Master of the Messengers, of what

    trustworthy authorities narrated from sound, fully chained tradition.

  16. And a writer of a hand whose artistry adorns her pen;

    its excellence delights whoever looks upon it.

  17. She was not among those women preoccupied with adornment,

    to line the eye with it or clothe themselves in brocade.

  18. Rather, her occupation was with a reward she laid up

    for the Day of Return, when the Trumpet shall be blown:

  19. relieving one in distress and feeding one who hungers,

    clothing one who is bare, and benefiting without harm.

  20. Ah, may the All-Merciful have mercy upon a pure soul

    whose dwelling was appointed in the world above.

Sol 5.6