Sol 6.1

  1. Among the lovers in Kinana cried out

    a moon, surrounded and adorned by beauty.

  2. And shot, with his eyes, an arrow into the heart—

    a young gazelle whose quiver lies in his eyelids.

  3. A Bedouin: the vanguards of his glances appeared,

    and the gazelles fled before them, ashamed.

  4. And his eyelids’ deadly raiders invaded the heart,

    and proved murderous and enchanting.

  5. We mended the broken hearts,

    though they could not withstand his thrusts.

  6. And the eyes of all people stared,

    when he began lowering his eyelids.

  7. He attacked us with a figure and an eye:

    that one wakeful, this one drowsy.

  8. And he took us captive with a brow and glances:

    the former sword-wielding, the latter spear-thrusting.

  9. Smiling, he showed us a flash of lightning

    that drew its gleam from the pearls of his mouth.

  10. We thought he sought a rain of tears,

    so we showed him a steady, pouring rain.

  11. He slays souls, yet never could

    the soul complain of his desertion.

  12. It spent its lifetime on him, yet never fulfilled

    its yearning for union in loving him.

  13. His unveiled face reveals the beauty of a full moon,

    with glances treacherous and faithless.

  14. Drowsy-eyed, heedless of one slain by his love,

    his figure sways with a ban tree’s curves.

  15. I cannot tell: an arak tree shaken from the most wondrous

    garden, whose branches rain has adorned,

  16. or Indian swords unsheathed from his

    flanks by slenderness, or a bent bamboo cane?

  17. Passing touches of the breeze wound his cheeks,

    and their moisture waters his basil.

  18. Gentle speech makes his eyelids droop,

    and silk’s touch makes his fingertips bleed.

  19. He said to me, his coyness bending

    his spear-like figure and turning its reins:

  20. “O love-tormented, lovesick one, who sought from us

    a bough-like figure, an object of longing,

  21. have you known love?” I said, “Has

    Mikhana ever sung outside his art?

  22. I am wasted by love; my passion cannot

    have its claim denied.” He said, “Then bear its humiliation.

  23. The noblest of lovers is he who clings to ardent love

    and yearning, and finds humiliation sweet,

  24. accepts passion and finds patience sweet,

    and endures the struggle with his sorrows.”

  25. He visited me as dawn was about to

    kindle its fires on the horizon of my heart.

  26. His face appeared, all but ready to

    thrust its spearhead into darkness’s mortal spot.

  27. In a shirt, trailing its hems—turn aside,

    O love-tormented one, toward him, and ask his kindness.

  28. And watch in wonder as he sways in his robe,

    his sleeves folding as he walks.

  29. His sleeves and sash roamed over an adversary,

    and both prolonged his lovelorn wandering.

  30. They denied his love and wronged a waist

    that complained of his full buttocks.

  31. I greeted him with an embrace and kisses,

    when he arrived with a drowsy eye.

  32. He gave me a smiling mouth and a figure

    that together stilled my longing’s throbbing.

  33. I called for wine in the cup and bowl,

    to banish its fragments from my heart.

  34. I passed the wine among the people in my sorrow,

    but he cried, “Leave the wine alone,

  35. and sip from my mouth and from my kisses

    a chilled wine whose place love knows.

  36. Suck from the nectar dripping from my tongue

    draughts that spare you the tavern’s daughter.

  37. Pluck the roses of my garden in delight;

    my cheek has guarded them from anyone else’s plucking.

  38. Savor the cool, flowing sweetness of my saliva,

    and gather my daisies from my smiling mouth’s flowers.

  39. Demand whatever you wish, except a deed that angers

    God: no man of reason prospers who has betrayed Him.

  40. Fear God in love, and heed

    Him; beware of consenting to disobey Him.

  41. By love’s right and my affection, it is not lawful

    to join with me if one disobeys his Merciful Lord.”

  42. So I obeyed his words, and never did

    my hand untie his fastening or his money belt.

  43. Then we lay together, two bedfellows, safe from the dark

    of estrangement’s night, in chastity beside him.

  44. In clear delight, without a disturbance—

    nothing foul between us, nor any betrayal.

  45. How wondrous a lover who overcame impurity

    and quenched his thirsty lover through union!

  46. Then, when it did not suffice him, longing drove him

    toward him, but fidelity resisted him.

  47. I shall praise his beauties that give refuge

    to the love-distraught from what has debased him.

  48. How much hurt I have borne! Yet in my verses

    he showed me his kindness,

  49. through far-traveling rhymes that told of

    the lovers’ haunt: the curve of a ban tree.

  50. And the meanings of their mysteries, recounted

    by the rhymes with fluidity and strength.

  51. The opponent retreats, silenced by the meanings

    of their mystery, which terrifies his heart before them,

  52. bridling whoever sang with eloquence in

    them, as though I had bound his tongue with them.

Sol 6.1