Sol 5.6

  1. He kept watering gardens and groves—

    what gardens and groves they were!

  2. In the hours before dawn, the winds moved gracefully among them,

    and seized one another by the forelocks, as rivals do.

  3. The branches whispered together there in secret,

    while the birds called to one another aloud.

  4. The branches’ whispering was like reproach,

    and the birds’ calling like songs

  5. from grapevines that swayed with clusters,

    like the curls of Black Africans and Abyssinians.

  6. A Mulāḥiyya cluster made another sway,

    like the faces of radiant, sheltered maidens—

  7. like pearls clinging to pearls,

    and fingers interlaced with fingers.

  8. It is like a star among the grapevine branches,

    and like the sun within the bellies of wine jars.

Sol 5.6