للنهر نهر قويق — Kashajim — Saqi

The river—the river Quwayq—
has done me a favor that cannot be denied.
One evening I caught there
a supple fawn among the beardless youths.
So he hurried along with a cup
whose wine was not chilled.
Encircled by bubbles,
clustered together, rising,
as though a string of pearls
were born from his lips.
And the earth is clothed in the flowers of the
meadows—a striped brocade—
as though bashful, wide-eyed maidens
were laughing there with other maidens.
And radiant white in hue,
and pitch-dark, black in hue,
and a redness of carnelian,
and a greenness of chrysolite,
and daisies, as though
pearls had scattered and dispersed.
And the fresh narcissus gazes
toward the tiered oxeye blossoms,
as a lover gives a sign
to his beloved of a rendezvous.
And the river, now straight in its course, now bending,
is like a serpent that twisted,
then straightened and stretched out.
As though within it were swords
of Indian steel, drawn bare:
at times they are unsheathed,
and at times they are sheathed.
As though the water-lily blossoms
in it were lamps ablaze,
at times shining, and at times
going out in the force of the wind.
As though its green leaves,
in pairs and singly,
were the prints of camels' padded feet
in soil of emerald.
When the east wind ripples it,
it shows you curly hair.
And if there sparkles from the sun
a rose-tinted light within it,
you would think that silver
was mingled there with gold.
And one whose voice enchants lays bare
the yearning of the stoic.
As though the spirit of ʿArīb
were moving to and fro within his body,
as though Ibn Surayj
were answering Maʿbad within him.
Whenever I made requests of him,
along with a rosy-cheeked woman,
he answered me with fingers
madder-red where the flesh was bare.
I made my two hands a collar
for him, and my lap a seat,
and I kept reveling, while the
watcher himself was kept far from me,
until, when night distracted us
from time and grew dense,
and the lion embraced the gazelle of the
covert, amid the sway of a saffron-dyed robe,
I came away after drinking the draughts of
youth, from the finest watering place.
And I thought my life, beside the life
of the caliph, richer in ease.
And pleasures belong only
to one who follows desire and rebels.