Sol 5.6

  1. The heart has sobered—save from the lingering intoxication of wishes;

    among graceful beauties, my slack rein still tugs at me.

  2. Easy, my heart! Can I bring youth back for you?

    Can a young man lay two hands upon the impossible?

  3. You yearn for that age and all its sweetness,

    yet what are you but blood and tenderness?

  4. If you do not keep a covenant or honor a sacred bond,

    and do not remember a beloved intimate, you are no heart of mine.

  5. Do you remember when we gave ardor its full due,

    and drank passion pure from wine-jars?

  6. You throbbing, while the beloved kept afar;

    you throbbing, while the beloved drew near;

  7. and days when I held nothing back in wagering with love,

    with you, my heart, the stake in every wager?

  8. How often I complained unceasingly of your throbbing;

    then it vanished—ah, how I long for that pounding!

  9. May second youth give you drink, after youth has quenched you—

    how, then, do you find the two cups differ?

  10. I still stand in the very bloom of youth; it is only that

    in Egypt a young man goes gray before his time.

  11. I do not gainsay the Maker: God built my frame

    as the handiwork of kindness and the tenderness of fair women.

  12. I submit whenever beauty takes my reins,

    and am enthralled whenever a beautiful one leads my bridle.

Sol 5.6