Sol 5.6

  1. I rein in the wild surge of longing within my breast

    with tears pouring from my weary eye.

  2. And when a wind from the uplands blows, there rise

    impulses born of yearning, unbridled against patience.

  3. As though my writhing with anguish and ardent love

    were the reeling of a drunkard, awash in intoxication.

  4. I yearned for Wadi al-Ghaḍā—may its ghaḍā trees be watered

    by the life-giving rain of every morning and evening cloud.

  5. Again and again I turn my gaze toward it,

    my eye reaching toward Najd across the distance.

  6. And when we crossed the sandy tract, the night journey told us:

    “Come, give your exhausted grazing beasts some rest.”

  7. We slept but lightly; then we sprang from slumber

    to each gaunt mount, faint-voiced and bowed with exhaustion.

  8. I set their necks straight, away from wandering,

    through the reaches of a bare expanse whose road lay clear.

  9. A graceful maiden has made me journey through the night—

    like a fawn now strong enough to follow its dam—

  10. and she leads me, when the sun’s spittle has melted,

    into battles whose story the broad sword-blades tell.

  11. At times I traverse the earth upon a mount,

    and at times upon a fleet courser with a streaming mane.

  12. I weep with an eye whose tears are drawn forth

    by the smile of lightning gleaming at night’s end.

  13. And whenever anguish assails my heart again, it is broken

    by a dove’s weeping, wailing as it remembers its mate.

  14. And a slender-waisted beauty, languorous in gaze, form, and gait,

    nurtured in the wholesome ease of youth,

  15. turned toward me, watchful and afraid,

    as a gazelle turns, coming into view in a lonely sand tract.

  16. She struck my heart when she shot me, peering down

    with the lofty glances of flashing eyes.

  17. She knew that the one she had struck would not live

    long, with a wounding arrow lodged between his ribs.

Sol 5.6