Sol 6

  1. O people of understanding, O people of discernment,

    I wandered lovestruck between the oryx doe and the oryx herd.

  2. Whoever overlooks Suha, the faint star, has not truly strayed;

    whoever overlooks the oryx doe has indeed strayed.

  3. Go with him, with his herd, to his herd;

    then throats open mouths in praise.

  4. She is among affectionate young women,

    one of the daughters of Persia by origin.

  5. Beauty strung pearls for her:

    a gleaming, white, pure mouth, like the oryx.

  6. Her unveiling troubled and startled me;

    in it she showed beauty and splendor.

  7. So I suffer two deaths from them both;

    thus the Qur’an has spoken of two deaths.

  8. I said, “Why did her unveiling startle me?”

    The people’s appointed meeting is at the oryx’s rising.

  9. I said, “I am sheltered by jet-black hair

    as a covering; let her let it fall beside her.”

  10. This poem of ours has no rhyme;

    I seek in it only the letter hā.

  11. My aim is the utterance “hā,” for her sake;

    I desire no sale except “here, take it” and “here, take it.”

Sol 6