Sol 5.6

  1. His glance is bewitching, his eyelid languid;

    moon-bright his face, night-dark his hair;

  2. slender his waist, heavy his haunches;

    swaying his figure, spear-like his bearing.

  3. He shuns me, though my heart is his dwelling;

    the purest in love—yet when he pledges, he betrays.

  4. Will one who loved us honor love’s covenant?

    No—far indeed is fidelity from one who betrayed.

  5. All my long night I await his union;

    one night of his union is worth a thousand months.

  6. O you of lowered gaze, grant me one glance;

    your turning away is more dire and more bitter.

  7. How wondrous! In your cheek is the fire, while in

    my soul are its blaze and sparks.

  8. Some of my good sense deserted me in love;

    my reproachers have indeed declared it unbelief.

  9. They spoke true: my good sense vanished in love,

    and love’s entanglements are among the gravest sins.

  10. Whenever I reminded him of youth’s covenant,

    he told me, “Those were childhood games.”

  11. And when the heart begs him for mercy over

    what his eyes have done, he reaches out—and hamstrings me.

  12. O imam of beauty, is there another awaited one?

    For me, you have always been the Awaited Imam.

  13. And when I complain to him of love’s wound,

    he tells me, “Bless the best of humankind.”

Sol 5.6