Sol 5.6

  1. O singer, aloft amid the boughs, warbling varied melodies,

    the charms of your song in the predawn hours consumed us.

  2. Repeat your song atop a tall tree in Wadi al-Jazʿ, for

    its plaint, when it arose, melted us and filled us with grief.

  3. I see you among the bān-tree branches, lamenting amid the—

    boughs for a mate—and that mate has proved false.

  4. So too have I become, O ringdove—like you, bereft of

    the youth of a life that has gone far from me and vanished.

  5. It passed before, in the first flush of its bloom, I could reap

    a harvest through which I might attain righteousness and grace.

  6. I grieved—but over an age in which I found no

    helpers toward attaining what I had hoped for.

  7. I endured it, wasted by anguish, fearing love’s torment, sorrowful;

    now it has passed, laden with pain, grief, and sorrows.

  8. Yet what lies forever between us, in this condition of ours,

    is longing, which I make plain by openly pouring out my grief.

  9. In the extremity of wasting anguish, I show you the utmost sorrow,

    while you reveal the utmost grief in melodies.

  10. I see you weep without tears—what a wonder!

    while my eye’s tears flow as pearls and coral.

  11. She said, “The waters of my eyelids have been turned to flame.”

    Then marvel at eyelid-water that has become fires.

  12. Thus, in speaking truth, she made her case conclusive

    and displayed a proof in the realm of thought.

  13. So I resumed shedding tears, while longings tormented me—

    tears streaming in torrents over the smooth expanse of my cheek.

  14. Alas for a grief-stricken man who weeps for what he has lost,

    whose allies are tears cascading in a flood.

  15. Do you suppose time will bring his loved ones near to him

    and string their reunion upon a thread, as it once was?

  16. Perhaps the nights will restore the company, gathered whole—

    for how often separation has melted our limbs away through distance!

  17. O land of Ṭaybah, may the life-giving rain greet you, and at dawn may—

    the raincloud pour down upon you for ages.

  18. And may you endure, while our souls are driven toward your abode,

    by longing, declaring it in secret and aloud.

Sol 5.6