Sol 5.6

  1. The nightingale sang of you over a meadow of arar blossoms,

    yet we could not fathom what the melody meant.

  2. And this breeze traveled by night through the smiling valley,

    yet we could not understand the tender wafting of its breaths.

  3. The white camels stirred, seeking the spaciousness of your courtyards,

    yet we could not discern where the caravan’s rustling was bound.

  4. Never have we ceased to stand behind a veil before your majesty,

    some of us agitated, others composed.

  5. By the sanctity of the covenant and the ancient love—and by whatever

    musk has wafted from that revered and sacred shrine—

  6. were it not for you, we would never have yearned for Dhu Salam,

    nor lain sleepless for Dhat al-Ban and al-Alam.

  7. My ecstatic love took possession of our innermost parts and gathered up

    the fragments of a heart that never yearned toward any camp but yours.

  8. O you who dwell within my heart, may I never be bereft of you—

    a subtle meaning whose significance courses within my blood.

  9. O my companions, upon its ascents my soul

    finds its lovesickness healed through remembrance of you.

  10. How many battles over the tents rage within my heart,

    which quivers there like the wind rustling through tents!

  11. Whenever an apparition rises from your horizons,

    I come alive; otherwise—alas for my death, alas for my nonbeing!

  12. Ah, how jealously my eye guards the beauty of your countenance!

    Ah, how my mouth revives the repeated praises of your remembrance!

  13. My tears flow like surging seas of passion,

    ranging between a sea set ablaze and one lashed by waves.

  14. Such is my way with my heart’s beloveds: whenever I remember them,

    the light of their encampment gleams before my eyes.

  15. Never does an eyelash of mine blink while I lament them

    without my glance touching the hem of their trailing robes.

  16. Nor do I picture the valley and their absence from it

    without inscribing the contours of their forms upon my heart.

  17. The fragments of my soul have never left their courtyard,

    kissing the earth along the borders of their sanctuary.

  18. Had I a pure treasure of souls, I would lavish it upon them,

    for their sake—for all of me belongs to all of them.

  19. Yet how could one ransom them who has, since primordial time,

    been, within the very fold of his clay, a slave to their slave?

  20. O you with whom I vie in longing, while I conceal from them

    my restraint—my abasement before their glory exposes me.

  21. O branches of manifold grace, whenever you sway at morning,

    I cannot but incline with my soul as you incline.

  22. Yet it pleases my heart that they accepted

    my name in their register among the people of their love.

  23. If, after their departure, I breathed forth any fragrance, then

    that fragrance was only a trace of their perfume.

  24. They taught me love when I knew it not;

    O you who blame me after this, blame me however you wish.

  25. A breeze from their gathering places visited our town

    and spread throughout our precinct the wafted fragrance of their perfume.

  26. Were it not for the promised meetings with them, our present selves would melt

    away in sickness; we would depart, neither sitting nor standing.

  27. The maladies of distance plundered us, and our hearts trembled,

    fearful of the harshness of their remoteness.

  28. Wondrously, despite our claims of seeking nearness, we did not

    hold back; yet, awestruck, we feared how inaccessible their nearness is.

  29. Nearness to them and distance are one; indeed, they

    in either state remain enthroned in the sovereignty of their holiness.

  30. How long the night for their sake, while the darkness lies restless!

    How near the day when they burst upon us with their sun!

  31. The sun rises from the light of beholding them,

    and night descends within the folds of their cloak.

  32. The kinship of love joined me to their band;

    O cause of union, have you weakened the powers of my resolve?

  33. What have I to do with the pure vision when they appear

    above the pulpits, upon their exalted throne?

  34. And who am I to see them? How ignorant I have been

    of my own worth—and alas for me before their rank!

  35. Upon them, from my heart at every moment,

    a greeting born of passion—salutations that recount my pain—

  36. to touch their thresholds on my behalf, bearing the sum

    of my soul’s essence, and to sweep away their dust;

  37. to discern a symbol of wisdom in their coy disdain,

    through the secret of my abasement and my kissing of their sandals.

  38. While distant, I used to send my soul

    to the Sinai of their presence, to fathom their secret.

  39. It would kiss the earth on my behalf, acting as my deputy—

    ah, how sweet what it inhaled from there and what it kissed!

  40. Now the turn of bodily forms has arrived

    at the portal of aid, overflowing with generosity.

  41. So stretch out your right hand, that my lips may attain it,

    O spirit of my spirit, and spirit of all humankind.

Sol 5.6