Sol 5.6

  1. My reproachful censor forbade the beloved to draw me near in love,

    for fear that I might touch his mouth or kiss his cheek.

  2. He did not know that, once the promise was fulfilled despite him,

    I drew near, while slumber disclosed of him all that it disclosed,

  3. and kissed him on the mouth—ninety times, or once.

    That is a mouth in which God has lodged a wisdom:

  4. within it pearls lie strung—a marvel wrought of honey.

    From what it held, I discovered wine and repose,

  5. and in his two cheeks beheld water and greenery.

    How lovely the pasture, and how sweet the watering place!

  6. Then, from the fire of my passion when it burned fiercely,

    the heart’s radiance swelled as it became an ember;

  7. and natural law decreed fire’s attraction toward water,

    so the cheek’s water blazed as it flowed crimson.

  8. O water, how fiery you are! O fire, how dewy!

    What a wonder—how can you ward off its deadly assault?

  9. You sought to combine it, but mastery of it proved unattainable.

    Here I am in passion’s misery and hardship,

  10. saying to the one who forbids it, who counseled abandoning it:

    You have only increased my aversion to what you counseled.

  11. Why do you forbid me, when thirst has already reached

    its farthest limit, yet I have found no water,

  12. nor has she greeted me, though I love a slender beauty who towers high?

    Why, then, did you not forbid the two lips, whose dusky bloom is sweet,

  13. and why did you not command the breast to conceal the swelling bosom?

    No cruelty from that gazelle-like beloved ever frightened me,

  14. though I sold myself to him as though I were merchandise;

    and so no commerce can distract him from me.

  15. I swear I have no ardent longing left for him—

    and how could I, when longing’s tyranny has left me nothing in reserve?

  16. For Idris’s needle embroidered fine patterns upon the temple-lock,

    and Moses’ staff truly mimicked this stature;

  17. my two eyes vied with the Flood and imitated it,

    while in my heart the fires of Abraham, the Friend, flared—

  18. yet from them I tasted neither safety nor coolness.

Sol 5.6