Sol 5.6

  1. Who will buy my sorrows for me?

    I would add them to all other sorrows,

  2. kindle them with flames

    upon a fevered heart—

  3. my own bewildered heart—

    which deserves every kind

  4. of separation and abandonment.

    It was careless of the slender ben-tree bough,

  5. while eyelids slept, heedless of it,

    just as Riḍwān did

  6. when he spent the night drowsing:

    an angry one fled from him,

  7. and the heavenly youths forsook him,

    and what was mine became free for the taking.

  8. Thus I remained heedless of him, indolent,

    out of trust and complacent assurance,

  9. safe, I thought, from searing anguish and deprivation.

    Then the neighbors stole him—

  10. no, the eagles snatched him away.

    So weep with me, brothers!

  11. He departed and abandoned his intimates;

    he hardened, though for so long he had been tender.

  12. And every love-distraught soul became

    brimming with cares.

  13. For sorrow holds tyrannous sway,

    and the heart within is aflame.

  14. Every remorseful soul repented.

    Yet among the lowliest creatures there fell in love

  15. the winged daughters of Wardān—the cockroaches—

    and before the lutes fell silent

  16. eloquence and melodies.

    That edifice collapsed.

  17. No wonder: homelands

    fall to ruin after their inhabitants depart.

  18. Where—where is consolation?

    How—how can there be forgetting?

  19. I have no power over this,

    nor helpers against it;

  20. I have only two eyes fixed upon it,

    pouring forth tears one after another.

  21. Glory be to my Lord—glory!

    Creator of a fragrant basil sprig

  22. bearing a thousand gardens,

    lush with fresh beauty.

  23. Beauty is a deluge within him,

    and the full moon is jealous of him.

  24. And every day he is in some state

    of captivating beauty.

  25. His beauty and his graciousness

    are both companions;

  26. his face is like faith,

    with proof shining forth within it.

  27. Woe is me for him—woe upon woe!

    Had it been my beloved who betrayed me,

  28. my plight would truly have been easy;

    but it was my own treacherous heart.

  29. It shunned the conduct of gallant youths

    and sold him at a loss.

  30. In this I showed no humanity,

    and I went away from him still thirsting,

  31. like that very throbbing—

    what happened—would that it never had!

Sol 5.6