Sol 5.6

  1. My greeting is not for dwellings in the barren wastes,

    nor for the blackened remnant of a campsite, weathered and effaced.

  2. As long as I live, I have bestowed my greeting on an assembly

    atop Bistam’s palace—the prince of assemblies—

  3. looking out upon a lovely garden, as though it were

    green forelocks spread above the couches of brides.

  4. Many a seasoned turtledove sings there,

    and many a drinker bends to his cup, holding nothing back;

  5. many a handsome, lively youth is there, sending messages

    with his eyes as you please, never bargaining—

  6. bold before his watchers and jealous guardian,

    smiling upon his beloved ones, never scowling.

  7. From him I took as provision a glance obedient to me,

    and it freed my heart from the discourse of whispering doubts.

  8. He passes among us a Babylonian wine,

    long aged by a dehqān of Persia.

  9. Whenever it leaves its vat, it exchanges that vessel for

    a shirt of glass—the finest of all garments.

  10. It grew so limpid that the eye wept, unable to discern it,

    and returned exhausted, with the disappointment of one in despair.

  11. Whatever the eye attained from it came from the eye itself—like one claiming

    the truths of an obscure matter by means of precious rarities.

Sol 5.6