Sol 6.1

  1. Your best course in reproach is to desist,

    and in my waywardness, I have a right to be excused.

  2. And I have not forgotten my day at Qutrubbul,

    and my night at al-Qufs or Ukbara:

  3. a time I savored as it came toward me,

    and a life I welcomed, radiant;

  4. and a vessel full of the tears of vines,

    as though safflower lay upon its mouth.

  5. When the cupbearers' hands bring it close

    to the cup, it laughs aloud and weeps.

  6. The streamers of passion fan it

    with the breeze's fragrance whenever it blows.

  7. And a gazelle who, when he sought to hasten the cups,

    frowned in haughtiness and grew proud,

  8. and unsheathed a dagger from his glance,

    and a dagger from the nūn-shaped curl of his forelock.

  9. You see the rose of his cheek red,

    and the basil of his mustache green.

  10. We thanked Idris for his deeds,

    and Idris deserves to be thanked.

  11. Through him we learned the paths of vice,

    and but for him we would not have known vice.

  12. So at times he brings Kadda back to us,

    and at times he brings Shawdhar back to us.

  13. When his house is full of life, I do not prolong

    my weeping over a dwelling gone desolate.

  14. And if misfortunes hasten his final day,

    I shall find no joy in anyone who outlives him.

Sol 6.1