Sol 5.6

  1. How long, O languid-eyed one, will you shun me?

    And how long will you wrong me while I endure?

  2. Why do you rebuke me, and why do you frighten me

    Unjustly—while with beauty you forbid and command?

  3. O my slayer, with an Indian-forged blade drawn from his glance,

    Surely what that dusky, lance-like figure has wrought is enough for you.

  4. How long must I suffer passionate longing for you? Whenever

    You heap on more of this cruelty, it only grows.

  5. What recourse have I? A longing that increases, and a tear

    Forever flowing, and a heart that splits apart.

  6. Indeed, I have strung necklaces out of tears,

    And I have been enthralled by you, while you know nothing of me.

  7. Ask the long night about me, for it

    Knows best what love has done, and can best tell.

  8. O you who blame me, leave me: love’s affair is not

    In my hands, nor can I command love.

  9. Do you think that, from the torments of wasting love,

    I shall escape, now that the green cheek-down has appeared?

  10. How can I escape, when I have a heart that, whenever

    I show it the door to consolation, refuses it?

  11. O the yearning lover’s bewilderment: if he does not confess

    His love, he dies; and if he does, he is not excused.

  12. Forever his sorrows stir him, and he complains;

    The memory of union shakes him, and he grows drunk.

  13. O my burning soul, break apart for him

    In passion—why should you hold back from loving him?

  14. A glance attacks, and a gracefully swaying figure

    Invades—yet the enchantment of his two cheeks is greater.

Sol 5.6