Sol 5.6

  1. I bade Najd farewell after an estrangement in which I had forsaken it

    long ago; then it greeted me—may the rainclouds water it.

  2. Ah, Umaym, darling of my heart: we are content whenever there appears

    from you an affection for us like my own enduring love for you.

  3. I shunned you for days at Dhu al-Ghamr; indeed, I

    regret my days of shunning you at Dhu al-Ghamr.

  4. I shunned you out of fear for you, lest ruin strike,

    fearing our enemies and seeking to avoid malicious tales.

  5. But when the days at Dhu al-Ghamr ended, and the land bore

    you far away, the women who censure me reproached me over you.

  6. And indeed I, during that estrangement—if only you knew it—

    was like a mother-beast parted from her young, yearning for it.

  7. Whenever you cast aside the talebearers’ words and make

    your love sincere for us, all our reproaches of you will vanish.

  8. Nothing stands between separation’s scattering of those you see

    among the clan except the blowing of the scorching winds.

  9. Many a close friend will soon be bereaved by separation

    of his dearest companions, once the doves begin to sing.

  10. It is not that separation should carry you away that weighs on us,

    so that you go far, nor that the malicious tales should die away;

  11. what weighs on us is that you should bestow a gift

    upon someone other than me, while the censurers blame me over you.

  12. How well the talebearers know the secret between us,

    though both of us conceal our love!

  13. We meet only by sudden chance, after

    we find that even our latest tryst has grown old.

  14. And we meet only at rare intervals, despite our enemies—

    as rarely as the Pleiades return—and those meetings are spoils won from you.

  15. By shunning you I placate proud men, as though

    clouds gathered over their very noses at the sight of me.

  16. So I swear before God: may I never cease reproaching

    myself, as long as al-Kaza’im endures at Marr,

  17. for withholding money from Umayma, after

    I was summoned to her; truly, my sorrow endures.

  18. I kept my distance until a barrier was raised between her and me,

    as far as al-Na‘ā’im lies from the station of the twin Farqad stars.

Sol 5.6