Sol 5.6

  1. Halt at al-ʿUdhayb, and greet the tribe whose people dwell there;

    and bid your eye rain upon the pastures of his eye.

  2. And beware, there, the gazelles of his covert,

    if you no longer fear the lions of his den.

  3. And if you claim your heart is empty of love,

    then who afflicted it with passion and yearning?

  4. Impossible—caution is no protection when there appear

    those idol-like beauties between the Sanctuary and al-Ḥajūn.

  5. And a veiled beauty—if he gleams beneath his cloak,

    you see the full moon above his brow.

  6. No sooner does the slender spear of his stature sway than

    the soul of one it pierced pours over him, mad with love.

  7. Let not the suppleness of his form deceive you about him:

    this is the one who split hearts with that very softness.

  8. The two aspects of his stature have put the supple spear-shafts to shame,

    and the blackness of his eyelids, the white blades in their sheaths.

  9. Were it not for his affection’s changing colors, I would have no

    eye whose tears are at a loss how to color it.

  10. The spiteful fault his falsehood in the promise he made;

    call it an oath—am I not the possession of his right hand?

  11. The varied arts of his passion did not entrance my heart

    until it saw, within beauty, the beauty of his arts.

  12. I concealed even from my own soul the tale of my love for him,

    fearing for him, and never breathed its guarded secret.

  13. Thus the heart does not know the cause of its longing,

    nor reason know who decreed its madness.

  14. A reproacher chides me for weeping, as though I

    weep, when sorrow grows fierce, with his own eyes!

  15. He thought love’s object easy to attain, never knowing

    that hopes in love fall short of its deathblows.

  16. What is it to him, and why should his ardent lover grieve him,

    if my heart spends the night consumed by its sorrows?

  17. He claimed it sincere counsel when he directed me

    to forsake love, out of his ignorance and wanton folly.

  18. No—by your life! Had he truly sought my good,

    he would not wish me to live without him.

Sol 5.6