Sol 5.6

  1. With bosoms and eyes we came,

    and apportioned our presence among the lovers.

  2. We swayed our figures, slender as spear-shafts, wearing away

    every frail and fluttering heart.

  3. How fine, among lovers, is the lot that is mine,

    if only they encountered in love what I endure!

  4. My stratagem in love, and for gaining what I desire,

    is the clever person’s stratagem in seeking a livelihood.

  5. If a lover were rewarded for the extremity of longing,

    I would be richly rewarded for my longings.

  6. And a maiden, whose rare beauty was only enhanced

    by the strange marvels of her ways:

  7. From her I tasted sweetness and bitterness; there was

    love’s delight in the contrast of flavors.

  8. She appointed a tryst; but when we met,

    she shunned me, saying, “Why meet at all?”

  9. I said, “This is not how covenants work.” She said,

    “Beauties are bound by no covenant.”

  10. My gauntness softened her, and she was grieved by

    a swift intercessor from the corners of my eyes.

  11. Then she showed me love and said, “We feared for you”—

    and love is a branch of tender concern.

  12. O maiden of Iraq, I keep hidden who—

    you are, and allude to my love for you by saying “Iraq.”

  13. My verses remain chaste in love, except

    where you are concerned; they have roamed across the horizons.

  14. Do not let Time hope for any more of them,

    if I should wish you to loosen my bonds.

  15. Lay upon me in love whatever you wish, except

    the ordeal of rejection or the affliction of parting.

  16. And grant an embrace, if coyness consents

    and you forgive one who dissolves within the embrace.

Sol 5.6