Sol 6.1

  1. Teach me how to storm your imagination.

    How to walk among the grains of your sand.

  2. Teach me how to love my fate.

    And hide from my waywardness in your shade.

  3. ،

    Indeed I sing, yet I do not understand my song.

    Indeed I play the strings of your beauty.

  4. And I sing, yet I do not sing,

    For fear of your men's swords and pens.

  5. ()

    Whenever darkness came in its robe,

    My star vanished and hid in Zamalek.

  6. I went like a madman, like one bewitched, like a drunk-

    -ard, raving: oh, how I long for union with you!

  7. ؟

    Teach me how to forget them—my wounds?

    How you shattered my spears with your eyes.

  8. ؟

    Teach me the ABCs of love.

    And mount the heights of my wing for union?

  9. Strip me of my sorrows; perhaps

    Memory has returned to the days of my struggle,

  10. !

    And erased a tattoo we etched together.

    Perhaps an eraser will efface some of my longings!

  11. And when the nest fell from its branch,

    The birds departed and spent the evening on the plains.

  12. ، ،

    Love is but a stormy encounter,

    O my wounds, my struggle, and my sash.

  13. I am a talisman in the chest of your secrets.

    And I am truly a balm for your sighs.

  14. And I remain holy in love,

    Joseph-like in garb, from Jesus, son of Mary,

  15. Adam-like in nature, a devout ascetic; so no

    one enthralled by beauty is sinful at heart.

  16. For the maidens, there is a homeland within my blood,

    And toward them love prayed and offered salutations.

  17. Yet I am a lover in wishes alone;

    Whenever I soar, I grow shy and regret it.

  18. Thirsty, though sweet water flows smoothly;

    Patient, though patience comes from the basin of Hell.

Sol 6.1