Sol 6.1

  1. Time betrayed and dealt unjustly in its decrees,

    And time is the very embodiment of a treacherous betrayer.

  2. And I was bereaved of treasures precious to me,

    Before my wishes could be fulfilled through them.

  3. And the turtledove's loss struck me with a bereaved parent's grief,

    So in him I lost the most accomplished of nighttime companions.

  4. His hue was the cloud's, and the cloud's hue his,

    And his beak resembled pens.

  5. And he was ringed with the coloring of his Lord's creation,

    With two collars I thought were made of blossoms.

  6. And how often, in the gloom of night, I was content

    With his cooing in place of a player of strings.

  7. Melodious in the late afternoons, he urged their cups along,

    And roused us for the obligatory prayer before dawn.

  8. Alas for the turtledove—an everlasting grief

    That sears the heart with anguish like fire's sting.

  9. And I have indeed forsaken patience since parting from him,

    And I have indeed mingled blood with flowing tears.

  10. I was but one among the birds—

    Far from it! The lord of birds has perished.

Sol 6.1