Sol 5.6

  1. Rejoice at the advent of Shawwāl,

    and delight in the ease of fortune;

  2. live the happiest of lives,

    for good fortune has hailed and welcomed us.

  3. So welcome—come to convivial delight,

    and bring what my soul desires;

  4. call the one whose beauty shames the sun—

    that gazelle of Najd.

  5. Come to a cup of morning wine:

    here the garden’s fragrance wafts,

  6. and the blossoms, smiling, gleam

    upon its silken carpet.

  7. Morning has grown radiant and bright,

    and the blossoms have opened,

  8. laughing at whoever has sobered up

    and become utterly forgotten.

  9. The tender boughs nod a greeting,

    and the rose appears with a smile,

  10. inviting to the cups of wine

    the ardent, yearning, sorrow-stricken lover.

  11. So pass the wine around in the goblet,

    and turn away from the giver of counsel;

  12. yet show him forbearance,

    and be content with what I say,

  13. amid a safe company of convivial delight,

    among the noblest people in the world.

  14. For they are like a necklace strung by its stringer,

    or like the clustered stars of the Pleiades—

  15. especially when served from the hand of one

    whose company makes time sweet,

  16. possessed of beauty in form and character

    and of the Khamīsī melody:

  17. the fairest of Tunis’s beauties,

    a full moon who has become my companion,

  18. the gathering’s sweet basil and delight,

    utterly free of faults.

  19. He outdoes all deadly beauties,

    himself slaying with the arrow of his glance.

  20. By his right, O my censor,

    ease your blame and heed what afflicts me.

  21. O you who enthrall your ardent lover,

    whether through your estrangement or your nearness,

  22. sing to the tormented one and captivate him:

    he appeared to me—lālī, lāliyā.

Sol 5.6