Sol 5.6

  1. She began to wrong me in all her coquettish charm.

    I said to her, “Be gentle with your captive.”

  2. She said, “Was it the full moon in its happiest hour that you described?”

    I said, “Yes—and it is your countenance.”

  3. She said, “And did you describe the pearls upon their string?”

    I said, “Indeed—and they are your incisors.”

  4. She said, “Was it the rose’s fragrance that you praised?”

    I said, “Yes—and the rose is your two cheeks.”

  5. I said, “Because of your waist, my heart complained

    of weakness.” She said, “The complainant lies.”

  6. I said, “Then I shall pray that wasting sickness befall it.”

    She said, “And add the weight of your hips to it.”

  7. I said, “What can the heart-smitten lover have

    from you, save that he longs for you?”

  8. Spread abroad on my behalf, O gossiping east wind,

    a saying as sweet as your fragrance:

  9. I have sworn never to ascribe baseness to

    an age that brought forth Hasan the Pure—

  10. the tenderest of Time’s sons in compassion for

    your afflicted ones among them and those doomed to perish;

  11. a man with a hand whose generosity the raincloud emulates—

    and excellence belongs to the one imitated, not the imitator.

  12. I called the sea miserly, and all mankind said,

    “How miserly the sea is—and how bountiful you are!”

Sol 5.6