Sol 5.6

  1. O my people, aid me against this visitor who keeps returning,

    and against what I endured at the hour of return!

  2. She snatched away my soul, yet drew near only

    to stay with us the time a scabbard takes to fall.

  3. That day she rose, swaying proudly in her girdles—

    if only I had been one of those girdles.

  4. Indeed, I said to the skilled physician, when

    I came to him and complained of love’s malady:

  5. “How can I find solace from one who shuns me,

    when my heart, like a summoned bird, cannot but answer?

  6. Because of that, and love’s consuming ache, I spend each evening

    in torment grown heavier than torment itself.”

  7. He said, “Forsaking your beloved will make you forget her;

    you will never find release until you keep away.”

  8. I said, “Passion will not let me—and my soul

    will never obey a censor in matters of love.

  9. How can my heart forget al-Rabab,

    when love of her stands in for every affliction?

  10. Women may be fair-skinned or tawny,

    all cast in the mold of their peers,

  11. indistinguishable as the nodes of a spear shaft;

    and it is as though al-Rabab were the mother of all nubile maidens.”

Sol 5.6