Sol 6.1

  1. I love only the gentle-natured,

    Slender of figure, supple in bearing,

  2. Narcissus-eyed, sweet in his swaying,

    Morning-bright of brow, with lush pastures.

  3. Everything you see in him is lovely:

    The eye's delight, the ears' recreation.

  4. O rulers of beauty, why not decree

    The return of those brief hours of union with him?

  5. Whether you blame me or do not, I am

    Enamored, enamored beyond dispute.

  6. My love is a sin, and in that sin

    I persist with all my might, without desisting.

  7. How can I forget the dark-lipped one whose glance instructs,

    Whose eyes' enchantment is lawful by unanimous accord?

  8. He captured my heart with his gentleness—how wondrous:

    A lion of the thicket is hunted by a gazelle of the plain.

  9. I said, 'Visit me'—how very sweet he was when

    His glances aroused my desires.

  10. O my friend, a little union is much

    From a pampered, withholding beloved.

  11. He visited me after my watcher had fallen asleep,

    And kept faith with me, granting union after refusal.

  12. And he came to me when night had veiled the horizon,

    Joyfully, with a veil of his hair.

  13. So I received him as the breast is received

    By a child long past the days of suckling.

  14. And I embraced his sides with a sorrowful man's embrace,

    Whose longings distracted him from taking heed.

  15. Then we spent the night on a bed of rejoicing,

    His neck and my arm forming a cross.

  16. And we plundered pleasures while Time was heedless,

    And passion cried, 'Is there anyone who calls?'

  17. On the night of union I made up for what I had missed,

    Though my efforts had nearly failed.

  18. My time was sweet, and my watcher was absent;

    My thoughts grew clear, and what I heard delighted me.

  19. And desire's urgings called me to lift

    My veil, but I did not obey those urgings.

  20. What a night! It passed, while my command

    For passion to end remained unheeded.

  21. A night I said was a lifetime's opportunity;

    And so it was, but without time enough.

  22. A night in which dawn almost stumbled

    When it approached with a train of rays.

  23. Oh, may God cherish that night! I had not finished

    My greeting before the rays began.

  24. It granted a meeting, then hastened on its way,

    Thus mingling honey with the venom of vipers.

  25. If only it had lingered a little—'I know' [wording unclear]—

    And honored my dignity and the kindness shown me.

  26. I do not know: did jealousy make it decree

    This, or was it anger at our meeting?

  27. Yet, although that night I did not attain

    My wish, nor the delightful thing I had devised,

  28. I am content with it, for I had been

    Ailing, and it dispelled my pains.

Sol 6.1