Sol 5.6

  1. With you I lived in bliss, while Time was heedless,

    for a while, and my heart was safe from being scattered.

  2. I knew nothing of sorrow until you went far away;

    now my heart is held fast by its regrets.

  3. O our beloved ones at the valley bend, will separation ever hear

    of a day whose blessings include reunion?

  4. The nights have indeed decreed separation for us,

    after which the yearning lover forgot life’s sweetness.

  5. It would delight my eyes if your breeze were to stir,

    that I might breathe reunion’s perfume from its waftings.

  6. Then I yearn—with a heart whose slightest ardor

    for yours surpasses all the bounds of description.

  7. May God water an abode at al-Muhassab, where so often

    we gathered the fruits of union in its courtyards.

  8. Remembering it renews in me every burning pang,

    at which the heart melts, though its self-command does not.

  9. Never do I pass a fledgling I have seen, with a hunter

    circling above it, seeking to seize it with his falcons,

  10. in grief greater than my longing for you—yet I only

    conceal love’s secret, for fear of its talebearers.

Sol 5.6