Sol 5.6

  1. The pledges of my passion are still ever new,

    yet health is effaced from all four quarters of my body.

  2. Whoever measures what I endure in love

    by Qays and Layla—his measures miss the mark.

  3. When my night closes in, sleeplessness is the constant companion

    of my eyelid, and ardent longing keeps it company.

  4. I am enamored of a gazelle of wondrous beauty, who never ceases

    to frighten my heart with separation, though he himself is tame.

  5. Whenever he reveals his beauty to the eyes,

    he shows you the sun’s face while the night is pitch-dark.

  6. And whenever the locks of his hair appear,

    they show you the darkness of night while the day blazes with sun.

  7. His face is a full moon whose perfection delights;

    his stature, a swaying branch of the bān tree.

  8. A full moon, yes—but one rising within my heart;

    a gazelle, yes—but one couched between my ribs.

  9. He puts the horizon’s sun to shame even as it shines,

    and makes the scowling lions of the wild seem paltry.

  10. Do I dare hope one day to pluck the rose of his cheek,

    when wide, lustrous eyes above it stand guard?

  11. Could I hope to forget love for a single hour,

    when whispering obsessions of him dwell between my ribs?

  12. If ever I seek to school myself in patience against his love,

    his glances beguile me and steal upon me.

  13. Muhammad—O you with whose love my heart is enthralled,

    and whose passion kindles firebrands within my heart:

  14. though you are absent from my eyes, your phantom comes visiting,

    so union is not denied me, nor does my heart despair.

  15. Whenever the cloudbank’s downpour streams,

    my eyelids’ tears and the gushing rains become alike.

  16. My body is sick, while yours is soft and flourishing;

    my eyelid is sleepless, while yours is drowsing.

  17. And when my eyes keep vigil, I call through the darkness:

    Ah, may my father ransom those drowsy eyes!

Sol 5.6