Sol 5.6

  1. And a garden, its temple-locks trailing luxuriantly,

    perfectly fashioned by the dyer’s refined artistry,

  2. until it attained perfection’s furthest reach—

    one seeker after beauty facing another.

  3. Its gazelles amid abundant, freely coursing water:

    among them, a ewe inclining her ear and a bleating ram,

  4. bearing above the crown of his head

    a collar-like ring colored by the dyer’s hand.

  5. In an idle hour, I plunged it into action;

    then one wading in her blood, a lapper—

  6. black-backed, dazzling white at the groins—

    struck her like a brain-crushing stone,

  7. and the elusive dodger drove into many of her creatures

    hooks that lodge fast in the pasterns,

  8. from every curving member, like the curve traced by a brander,

    as though they were scorpion-curls at the temples.

Sol 5.6