Sol 5.6

  1. Whenever my soul prevails, it makes straight for you;

    for I cannot do without wisdom and purpose.

  2. Yet for those journeying toward you, in my praise

    of you, my poems stand as witnesses.

  3. Though thoughts may arise from me while you are absent,

    you remain with me, faithfully kept before my sight.

  4. Remembrance of you has never ceased to drive me toward meeting you,

    nor love of you to guide me toward remembering you.

  5. I see you with my eyes and heart while awake;

    and if I sleep, a phantom of you guides me in slumber.

  6. Observe one person's affection for another—what appears

    before your eye in plain sight, or in dreams.

  7. When devotion is truly pure, love is one,

    though the days may be of many kinds.

  8. Is it a thought that has never ceased to dwell within my mind?

    Concerning you, indeed, I have bound my convictions well.

  9. In the purest state of my abiding apart from you—and God is witness—

    I seem, in my distress, to lie within a hunter's grasp.

  10. My longing for Layla has stirred within my heart

    a blazing ember of passion and remembrance.

  11. I wish that I might sleep—perhaps, perhaps

    a phantom of hers might visit me late at night.

  12. I hunger for Layla and thirst; indeed,

    I yearn for her like she-camels bereft of their young.

  13. And if God decrees safe passage, I shall visit her,

    if good fortune in her regard proves my ally.

Sol 5.6