Sol 6.1

  1. And a sweet-scented, fragrant place,

    Drenched with the freshest rain.

  2. The rainclouds murmured together for it

    With thunder, yet without a thunderbolt.

  3. And lightning tended it;

    So whenever a cloud was cleft, rain fell.

  4. And its pools lay scattered

    In a meadow, as leaves are strewn.

  5. A restless current cuts through it,

    Like the heart of a restless lover.

  6. It glides amid its embroidery

    Like a gleaming sword.

  7. When the cloud draws back for it

    From the sun's brow, it gleams.

  8. My companions felt its coolness

    Before the first signs of dawn.

  9. By night we seek among its fish

    Veiled quarry never sought before.

  10. Then its surface clasped hands with

    Each new net, like worn-out cloth.

  11. From it a body is sent forth,

    Whose limbs are all eyes.

  12. It shows you a coat of mail laid

    In layers over the water's cuirass.

  13. Whenever it escapes drowning,

    It is thrown back, and drowns again.

  14. Seizing whatever comes its way

    And securing whatever has escaped.

  15. And ceaselessly among them

    The jewels of sustenance are arrayed:

  16. Winged creatures that have donned

    Wondrous, brilliant-white embroidery.

  17. As though their eyes

    Were blue sapphire gems.

  18. And sometimes we turned toward the

    birds, which had arrived in flocks.

  19. Each rare bird has an embroidered

    robe, patterned like silk cloth;

  20. As though its scribe

    Had traced fine patterns and sweeping strokes upon it.

  21. For them we set in the ground

    A tether of death, like a lasso,

  22. With its stakes concealed,

    Its loops standing out.

  23. Its form is almost invisible,

    So slight it is when one looks.

  24. It is ringed with sustenance that sometimes

    Kills the one sustained by it.

  25. So among the birds are some free in darkness,

    Some owned, and some enslaved;

  26. And a frantic one that rends the

    knife when they say, 'It's caught!';

  27. And a motionless one, already dead,

    And a fluttering one, with life still lingering.

  28. So, too, life's provisions consist of

    Wholesome clarity and murk.

Sol 6.1