Sol 6.1

  1. She said, 'Gray hair has appeared.' I said, 'Yes.'

    It came before its time, spitefully and in haste.

  2. And with gray hair, despite its drawbacks,

    there is still some time for pleasure and courtship.

  3. She made it seem that youthful dalliance is folly

    after fifty—and whoever hears thinks so.

  4. I wonder: will my love for Su'da kill me?

    And when love exceeds its bounds, it kills.

  5. A fleeting vision of her passed through my sleep,

    like a flash of lightning that appeared, then vanished.

  6. What a visitor of yours, had it come deliberately by night,

    and what a caller from you, had it truly done so!

  7. It appears while slumber is in my eye,

    and when sleep leaves it, the vision vanishes.

  8. A moon that, out of ardent love, I followed

    with the gaze of one lovesick for it, until it set.

  9. My heedlessness made me fearful after I had felt secure;

    and being lulled by safety invites fear.

  10. I was never led to think my good fortune would betray me

    with the treachery of shade that lay still, then moved away.

  11. An age whose misfortunes toy with me,

    as a crosswind toys with a long, swaying spear.

  12. And I regard poverty—so pay it no heed—

    as a spell that runs its course, and a wound that heals.

  13. My soul found it intolerable—and with loathing found it so—

    to receive bounty from a palsied man's palm.

  14. And some kindness is bitter, intensely bitter:

    the eater spits out what he has eaten of it.

Sol 6.1