Sol 5.6

  1. Is it a kind of magic that you have woven,

    or strung pearls that you have inscribed on parchment?

  2. Yes—it is lawful magic, and it is only

    its incantations that solve the knottiest problems.

  3. And knots no master-binder of doctrines has ever tied,

    and pure affection whose blade mows estrangement down.

  4. Through it you made plain what lies between us—call it our bond:

    neither separation destroys it nor estrangement breaches it.

  5. Before this I used to call you one who had forsaken me,

    but what I had concealed became plain in what you disclosed.

  6. At the memory of you, those bygone days stirred my anguish;

    my eye brimmed because of it, and its streaming tears poured down.

  7. Ah, those days! Were they to return, there would lift away

    all cares, and their clouds would rain down joy.

  8. The sorrowful heart would become glad and jubilant,

    and its doves would sing in those beloved haunts.

  9. Indeed, though long gone from love’s abode,

    I abide by the covenant that you know.

  10. So do not think circumstances have changed, nor that I

    have put love’s covenant from mind, or that I would sever it.

Sol 5.6