Sol 6.1

  1. May good be yours! Aid the caller to good, O Saʿd,

    when reason forbids it and ecstasy calls.

  2. For reason's fetter calls toward the other,

    and union with the other is severance, and finding it is loss.

  3. Return, then, to remembrance, and abandon thought of the other,

    if you are among those whose aim is the peerless beacon.

  4. And do not be jealous when her name is mentioned,

    for whoever mentions her is a camel-driver, urging toward love of her with song.

  5. Her face shone forth to those not of love's children,

    and they were turned away—so it is with the sun and sore eyes.

  6. And the lover's gaze beheld her; if he wept

    for joy—one who beholds the sun has tears that show.

  7. So forgo a price for your precious soul before her,

    for she has no slave except one without a price.

  8. She is close to union with the lover; yet

    when she unites, neither nearness nor distance remains.

  9. She swayed, and they thought her a dualist,

    though her figure may sway while it is the One.

  10. And the girdles of her waist spoke in beauty,

    so they imagined doves singing above their bān-tree.

  11. And they said, 'She has a bewitching mole of nadd perfume.'

    You spoke truly: she has a mole; indeed, she has no peer.

  12. So if you have a promise of union with her beauty,

    then one of her lovers counts in your eyes.

  13. So do not say, 'The world enticed him'; rather,

    Hind revealed herself to his eye from within the world.

  14. All are driven from the sweet watering-place, save a man—

    a stranger, who has a share of water at every watering-place.

Sol 6.1