Sol 5.6

  1. A shell split open to reveal lustrous pearls—

    or a letter unsealed to disclose a poem,

  2. and rhymes set true amid

    verses weighed on the just scales of thought?

  3. And maidens who came before me dressed in mourning—

    or lines resplendent in verse and prose?

  4. No—by the solace and joy I find in a letter!

    Through it I know the festal joy of Adha and Fitr.

  5. Never did the night of my loneliness grow dark but

    I found within it rising lights like a full moon.

  6. With words that kindle longing for companionship,

    and a smile whose burning ache my heart contains.

  7. Do not delay your reply to me—for my day

    is like an age, and my hour like a month.

  8. My father be your ransom! If, in the extremity of my longing, I could,

    I would be the letter’s phantom at its very first line.

Sol 5.6