Sol 6.1

  1. Look at the beauty of this melodious bird,

    And the lovely splendor of the garden's radiant blossoms.

  2. That one is unveiled; this one is a delightful, tuneful singer,

    From atop a pulpit of fragrant mandal wood.

  3. Then hand me, O you of graceful stature, what was pressed

    For me by beauty's hand from your coquettish gaze.

  4. For neither wine, in its stealing of minds,

    Nor drunkenness steals souls more than your eyes.

  5. Unmixed; and if you seek a blend, O desire of my hope,

    Let it mingle with the tenderness of my passion for you.

  6. How often I spent a night whose fragrances overpowered,

    Despite their dispersal, the sun's light in the lamps.

  7. I cried your name within it, to turn it [uncertain reading]

    Into pearl, after it had been obsidian [uncertain reading].

  8. And how often, in my extravagance, I opened for the visiting dream-phantom

    The gate of death; then [unclear wording] it did not enter.

  9. And how often I asked the pale camels' singing drivers to stop

    At the traces of his dwelling, or the slope of a bend.

  10. And how often I offered my whole self, heedless,

    And guarded your secret in a heart sorrowing for you.

  11. And I watched lightning over the sandy ground, more tremulous than

    My heart for you and an eyelid quivering for you.

  12. Until I heard glad tidings for you: may you rejoice—you have

    Been mentioned there, despite the crookedness within you.

  13. And your record entered the current of compassion, in

    The affirmation of my secret, from a soul upon a path.

  14. So afterward I did not ask the east wind to bear me along

    To gather my scattered self, nor to turn toward the tents.

Sol 6.1