Sol 5.6

  1. Many a day I passed in delight,

    on condition of drunkenness and a tongue tied fast;

  2. and my beloved, my willing helper in it, brought—

    —me back to life with a sprig of basil when he greeted me.

  3. And a bride whose veil was a wine jar’s belly,

    long-aged in the monks’ villages;

  4. her dress was of thread spun by spiders—

    I fancied she had taken bodily form from smoke:

  5. a spreading tree for a saffron Euphrates,

    giving birth to pearls upon the heads of singing women,

  6. with sheer robes of glass upon her,

    transparent and concealing little.

  7. All day I kept banishing sorrow from myself with her,

    for she is an antidote to the searing pang of sorrows,

  8. among pleasure-loving youths who kept her company,

    each a giver of joy, tractable to the rein,

  9. with crowns of myrtle upon their heads

    instead of silver and pure gold.

Sol 5.6