Sol 5.6

  1. Dawn’s radiance heralds a new breaking forth,

    And liberation from the shackles of darkness.

  2. O crescent-frond of longing—I see it striving

    To emerge from the tunnels of the moon’s dark phase.

  3. I have cast the night’s cares behind me,

    And the dread of a long separation.

  4. For the sun rises every day

    To raise for humankind the banner of reunion.

  5. O you who reproach me for the blaze of rhymes,

    And for setting my foot free toward dreams—

  6. Why do you reproach a lover

    Whom love has given the brimming cup to drink?

  7. My love sees the vast universe as its emblem,

    Through the harmony that all beings share.

  8. It is great love that summoned my words

    Into the free outpouring you now witness.

  9. And shook the garments of poetry’s clouds until

    The streams you see began to flow.

  10. It brought me close to the farthest reaches,

    And won me the prizes in the race.

  11. It is great love that gladdened my eyes

    With sight of what had receded beyond my reach.

  12. And lightened the hardships I confront,

    And made their bitterness sweet to the taste.

  13. ،

    By the Lord of the universe, were it not for my concern for my faith,

    And the wound of Jerusalem and Iraq within us—

  14. And what I suffer from my child’s cries,

    And a widow staggering beneath all she endures,

  15. And were it not for the weakness I see in my people

    Before the aggressor, and for their divisions—

  16. I would have fashioned letters into cups of love,

    A cupbearer would bear them round among lovers.

  17. O you who reproach me, temper your reproach:

    My love is true, and affection endures.

  18. One who merely feigns longing in love is not

    Like one seared in the fires of my yearning.

Sol 5.6