Sol 6.1

  1. O Arabs of al-Jarʿāʾ, from the ravine’s right side,

    For you—not for anything besides you—is the ardent lover’s passion.

  2. Did you not promise us that we would see you at Dhū al-Faḍā?

    I think you mean that my heart is the ghaḍā shrub.

  3. In passion for you, while the east wind kindles the fire,

    I tell the east wind: “Blow upon my fire for you!”

  4. And in longing, when you incline toward me with desire,

    I say in excuse: “Swaying befits the boughs.”

  5. And if you kindle the consuming fire, how often it has shone—

    and my heart’s fire lies in the breast of the distraught, ardent lover.

  6. And if you find a torrent and a deep pool in the ravine,

    then you are in the channel of tears, O dwellers in my heart.

  7. Your Babylonian eyelids have taken us captive.

    And surely the longings of [unclear word] lie in love—

  8. a little text [reading uncertain]; why not for the watcher and a reproacher,

    so that both might spend the night in torment and weariness?

  9. That gazelle of yours, union with whom is withheld,

    has laid open my tears’ sanctuary and gone far in plundering me.

  10. He is the gazelle—no, rather, his glance is a hunter of gazelles.

    And oh, how sweet is capture in the snare of eyelashes!

  11. His glance is sweet; what is bitter in love is union with him.

    And it did not grow sweet until it passed through his sweet saliva.

  12. My jealousy over his graceful side extends even to the gray doves.

    Have you not seen it flare over the tender branch?

  13. And if her eyelids have wilted, though they are narcissi,

    it is from my long addiction to drinking from them.

  14. And how strange—they are cups—why is it

    that, when broken, they grow whole and circulate among the drinkers?

  15. Is there, then, a return in a night made of a tress,

    that, from its darkness, ever speaks of the full moon?

  16. My heart ascended through it to the secret of its burning.

    Peace upon the one beneath whom are rosaries of fresh dates.

  17. He sought to take charge of loosing and binding in his presence;

    then he wronged the prisoner, as attraction required.

  18. The drooping of his eyelid invited me to an embrace;

    then he answered me: “Boughs have nothing but the hills.”

  19. And I cooed as doves coo, seeking a way

    to him, because of the bond between doves and boughs.

  20. And I said, “Beauty’s alms are obligatory.” He said, “Never

    do leafy boughs incline except toward the gallant.”

Sol 6.1