Sol 5.6

  1. My two companions, rise: either excuse me or reproach me;

    but do not blame me for savoring delight and yielding to rapture.

  2. Whenever I remember a fair-skinned woman, I shed a tear

    and hold my soul in check, afraid it may pour itself away.

  3. No one drains pleasures to the dregs but a squanderer

    who, once resolved, gives no thought to the approval of one who is absent.

  4. My companion sang her name, and it was as though

    he had struck a bird within my heart, and it thrashed about.

  5. Among the marvels of the age is that our abstaining

    is sound judgment—yet we cannot endure abstinence.

  6. Whenever a yearning lover sighs, I sigh in answer,

    as the lute answers the finger-pierced reed.

  7. A soul’s needs arose from the pursuit of love;

    through them I came as a guest, yet met no welcome.

  8. Each evening I turn, toward a fair-skinned woman,

    my passion; but the heart will accept nothing but change.

  9. I school myself to live without her, against the day I lose her;

    nor do I long for my night when it comes back.

  10. Then speak of a young man whose path has been barred against him:

    he went astray, though he had tirelessly sought what he sought.

  11. I made my suit, holding to Time’s bond, in hope that it

    might favor me one day, though it had turned hostile.

  12. I was fashioned with what is within me, without any choice;

    such is my passion—had I been given a choice, I would have been refined.

  13. I desire and am denied; I am given, yet do not desire;

    and my knowledge falls short of attaining what is unseen.

  14. I am turned aside from my aim, while forbearance is the limit of my reach;

    and I end with nothing gained but bewilderment.

  15. Virtue is nothing but a sacred bond: if you honor it,

    you are rightly guided; if you do not, you are utterly thwarted.

  16. O Yahya ibn Zayd, why sever my friendship?

    You have betrayed my affection—indeed, you have ventured an astonishing deed.

  17. Is it now—when hands point me out as I recite,

    and the Persians throng around me while I am lavishly generous and turbaned;

  18. when Uqayl has risen behind me with spears,

    in protective zeal, and I have sworn alliance with the guarded champion?

  19. Stand aside, Abu Fi‘l—your mother has need

    of us; do not stir up trouble, for you have never been a troublemaker.

  20. Your father is a Jew, and your mother an uncouth foreigner,

    and you resemble a pig of the Sawad turned loose to roam.

  21. You imagined warfare with me was like sheltered maidens’ warfare,

    lasting but the pause between two milkings; once they left, they returned to play.

  22. Far indeed from truth is ignorant men’s estimate of a man

    slow to be appeased—a bane to whoever forms a faction against him.

  23. God forbids my loving a friend or drawing him near

    if he habitually betrays every trust and spreads malicious slander.

  24. By my life, I have struggled against my soul over passion,

    that it might forget—but the soul’s desire proved stronger.

Sol 5.6