Sol 5.6

  1. A fair-skinned beauty passed us, her graceful figure

    putting the straight, dusky spears of al-Khatt to shame.

  2. In a yellow robe she strutted proudly,

    exulting over the emperor of the Yellow Race—the Byzantines.

  3. She unveiled a forehead that shone like the Pleiades,

    and the radiant dawn of bliss shone forth for me.

  4. Slender-waisted, her cheek is Paradise to me,

    and her sweet mouth draws its waters from al-Kawthar.

  5. Among the qualities of her neck is this:

    God fashioned it from purest jewel.

  6. Were she one day to unveil before a suitor,

    he would take the pulpit to proclaim her charms.

  7. And were she to appear radiant before a monk,

    he would hasten to burn ambergris as incense.

  8. Souls would be sold to her for a single glimpse—

    moonlike, too sublime for buyer or Jupiter alike.

  9. She is of the white oryx; but her sidelong glances,

    in their deadly assault, are fiercer than a lion.

  10. With my soul I would ransom a sip from her smiling mouth,

    whose nectar is sweeter than sugar.

  11. Her radiant beauty is inviolate, beyond suspicion;

    the slanderer sins in misrepresenting her.

  12. Her lovers obey her command more readily

    than a ring turns around the little finger.

Sol 5.6