Sol 5.6

  1. Whose are these dwellings, as though they were lines of script?

    The east wind weaves over their traces and brings them to light;

  2. the winds have played through them since their days of habitation,

    a crosswind driving the dust, and the west wind.

  3. The dwelling of Hind—when you wandered mad at her remembrance,

    while youth, that borrowed splendor, was radiant;

  4. when she enthralled you with the neck of a tawny young gazelle,

    pearls and beads of gold upon her upper breast.

  5. She is the one who stole the heart, until it became—

    the heart a pledge in her keeping, held captive.

  6. Were an ant to creep across the bare surface of her skin,

    its tiny tracks would show there as furrows.

  7. Radiant, clear-browed, as though she were

    a moon risen luminous before all who gaze.

  8. Full in frame, yet delicate of waist,

    and musk is scattered from her sleeves.

  9. She smiles, revealing daisies whose petals have been drenched

    by a rumbling rain-cloud, pouring from al-Simāk.

  10. She has luxuriant hair, trailing like grapevines,

    lovely in its tresses, jet-black and braided.

  11. And a henna-dyed hand, soft of finger, as though it were

    red arak berries; her cinctured waist is softly full.

  12. She said, while tears flowed freely from her eyes,

    like pearls, now streaming down, now sinking away:

  13. “By God, visit us, if you desire union with us,

    but beware of men, every one of them under orders

  14. to seize you; so let the visitor be a discerning young man.

    For a noble man is patient when caution is called for.”

Sol 5.6