Sol 5.6

  1. May I soon be rid of you, O heart—such a heart!

    Do you make the one you love a lord over you?

  2. By what counsel, by what judgment,

    do you give her mastery, though she gives you no sweet draught?

  3. Every day you yearn in passionate longing

    for a love that has brought anguish upon anguish.

  4. You forsake all women for love of her,

    as though you owed them some mortal vow.

  5. Is it because Rayhana is lovely and sweet

    that you spend the night afraid and the day love-struck?

  6. You start at the sight of friends, yet seek her out,

    alone with obsessive whispers, bent low.

  7. As though you saw no beauty but hers

    and found among all people no equal for her.

  8. How many a deep ordeal, how many a far crossing

    have you faced alone—do you come any nearer?

  9. You wept for love while your passion was a child;

    woe to you, then woe, when it grows up!

  10. When your morning has become all lovesick folly,

    and raptures pour passion over you,

  11. you reach evening, and evening is bitter to you;

    love tosses you from side to side.

  12. I think that one day, in dread of parting,

    you will die of terror from love’s disease.

  13. Do you show fear while hiding desire?

    You have tormented me with hope and fear.

  14. You have no share in her affection

    but enmity—take dust in both your hands!

  15. When one love turns cold while another remains,

    leave whoever shuns you for whoever stays.

  16. Leave the niggard’s quarrel when he persists:

    generosity is always what he quarrels with.

  17. She said, “There is always an eye upon me;

    I watch for a guardian, and fear a dog.”

  18. She has slyly duped you while you were heedless;

    so be crafty when you meet the crafty.

  19. Let no promise of love beguile you,

    for her promises have brought down drought.

  20. Come, heart—give yourself to consolation:

    you have tormented me, and I have met war.

  21. What can you now hope for from a friend

    who counts your long love as a sin against you,

  22. as though you had killed someone dear to him

    through loving, or had waged war upon him?

  23. I have seen that the heart will not visit one it hates,

    but favors with a visit the one it loves.

Sol 5.6