Sol 5.6

  1. I lay awake to the cadenced weeping of the doves,

    denied the sweetness of repose in sleep.

  2. I have an eye whose tears stream freely,

    down the cheek, flowing like gentle, steady rain.

  3. My reproacher answered me, then said:

    “What is this weeping? What ails you, young man?”

  4. I said, “I am sick with love, and in my breast

    is sorrow, and in my heart a blazing fire.

  5. How can I spend the night with sorrow in my heart,

    and anguish leaving me to vie with the doves in weeping?

  6. A maiden shot me with her glances,

    like the points of brown lances and arrows.

  7. She has a luxuriant tress, full and heavy,

    long and glossy as the wing of darkness.

  8. Beneath it, radiant and unveiled, shines

    her forehead, like the full-orbed moon.

  9. She has an eye like the oryx’s eye

    when, startled, it springs from the repose of sleep;

  10. and a nose, lofty and proud,

    long and delicate as the edge of a keen sword;

  11. and a mouth breathing fragrance like a musk pod;

    and her saliva is the rose that cures leprosy.

  12. Her teeth are pearls whose radiance

    is like lightning that makes one languish on nights of cloud.

  13. A breast of hers stands upright and firm;

    upon its tip, a bead like sealing wax.

  14. By it I was sorely tried; then I tasted love—

    and no injustice should befall lovers—

  15. in the days of youth and its first bloom,

    amid diversion and drinking cups of wine.

  16. We drank the heady wine throughout our life,

    a bracing vintage there, dark as the wing of night,

  17. with the sons of Nabhan, the crown of kings,

    an inheritance bequeathed me by forefathers of old.

  18. I am the son of kings and a giver to kings,

    resolver of doubts and faithful keeper of covenants.

  19. I am the son of kings, a scion of kings;

    all other kings are feeble servants.

  20. I am a son of Nabhan, Water of Heaven,

    of the line of Hud—peace be upon him.

  21. And I close my poem by invoking the Messenger,

    prophet of all creation, light amid darkness.

Sol 5.6