1. May God water a monastery where I shared wine with a priest.

    And he was noble, visibly cheerful—a saint.

  2. He has a character that pleases the Prophet Muhammad,

    And he does what Jesus enjoined upon his people.

  3. And he is enraptured if I sing to him, as though I

    Had rung a bell for him in the monastery at dawn.

  4. He gave me golden, shiver-inducing wine to drink,

    As though pearls were planted along its edges.

  5. Aged wine from Saydnaya, which I had bought;

    With it the wine-strainer makes Iblis’s flanks sway.

  6. So, from its face in the cup, he shows good cheer

    Toward me, but from my face he encounters a scowl.

  7. A young gazelle moves among the drinkers with this dark-red wine,

    One of the Turks, whom awe clothes in dignity.

  8. When he struts in the mantle of his beauty, he seems—

    Swaying in wine’s intoxication—a peacock.

  9. His forelock is the serpent whose shape struck terror

    Into Pharaoh’s heart on the day of Moses’ staff.

  10. Whoever you find one day in his company rejoices

    With Solomon’s joy over the throne of Bilqis.

  11. Then he recited to me elegant, polished verse,

    In which antithesis and wordplay matched in beauty.

  12. And his glance looses an arrow whenever he gazes,

    And the clouds have arched his eyebrow into a bow.

  13. Ten fingertips meet around his waist,

    And in his saddle, from his rump come bliss and misery.

Sol 6.1