Sol 5.6

  1. Ah, greet Layla for me when her fleeting visit comes.

    And her speech was a flowing spring for the hostile folk.

  2. Console yourself with Layla; you are only a mortal soul

    whose doom, from tomorrow onward, draws nearer day by day.

  3. Hasten to Layla before the riders bed down, for they—

    whenever they turn back—will bar you from her fleeting visit.

  4. Let the tremulous cadence of her voice suffice you, now that a barrier stands between you and her,

    and men whose oath concerning her is feared have sworn.

  5. I will surely keep away from her—or they will forestall me

    with gleaming blades, broad with battle-marks, their wounds gaping.

  6. A fair-skinned, languorous, playful, secluded maiden;

    delightful on the full-moon night is her fragrance.

  7. It is as though lightning’s gleam flashed between me and her

    whenever her smile dawned from behind the veil.

  8. I was told that Layla, at al-Ghariyyayn, had sent greetings

    to me, though Takhfah and its cairns lie between us.

  9. For she, despite the remoteness of her dwelling, bestowed

    a greeting—her greeting shall surely be returned to her—

  10. as many times as there are pebbles and tamarisks in Bisha’s valley,

    and its ṭarfā tamarisks, so long as doves remain there.

  11. Layla truly came to me by night while my leg was held in fetters;

    nothing in the prison frightened me except her greeting.

  12. When I raised myself on my elbow toward the phantom that had journeyed by night,

    suddenly the land was desolate, its dust-cloud already towering over it.

  13. And if it was not Layla, while my leg lay fettered,

    it was one resembling Layla in beauty and stature.

  14. Ah, if only we might live together in happiness,

    and my bones decay when her bones decay.

Sol 5.6