Sol 5.6

  1. Ever since you were the staff of ecstasy, you have journeyed on and on;

    no upland or lowland ever strutted proudly with her.

  2. Time wore away her lovely qualities—and how often

    solace failed, while burdens could not bend her.

  3. How often she was stained with Time’s blood! Devouring never ceased

    to carry her, while longing beguiles.

  4. You broke open Time’s tangled knots, and the daggers withdrew

    from her; the revolutions of Time are a torrent.

  5. I seem to see Time’s calamities falling in love with her;

    and so, through every revolution, she changed from phase to phase.

  6. Nothing appearing between the two horizons could bend her, nor

    was divine self-disclosure raining lavishly upon creation.

  7. It turns back her tempests and wears away her vicissitudes;

    it draws her workings near—advance is retreat.

  8. It makes one forget her supports and draws her affections near;

    it guides her signs—the cosmos has no choice.

  9. We are the two who drank love out of thirst,

    while the watering places have habitual visitors and righteous folk.

Sol 5.6