Sol 6.1

  1. It is as though the down on the cheek of the one I love

    were his favor, bearing some traces of his rejection.

  2. Graceful in his swaying, shooting darts with his eyelid, deadly;

    the armies of love are beneath the banner of his intent.

  3. He burdens his buttocks with as much weight as

    he lays upon his slave's heart through the weight of love.

  4. A pool ripples beneath the bough of his stature,

    and the serpent of that hair thirsts to drink from it.

  5. His sash took charge of matters of loosening and binding,

    so his waist's span narrowed with the knotting of his sash.

  6. For if from his cheeks comes a fire whose smoke

    is at his temples, then the gardens lie beneath his cloak.

  7. So do not seek fulfillment of his eyelid's promise;

    for it is languid, so seek the breaking of his promise.

  8. For if he loves breaking his word—I would ransom him!—why does he

    agree to kill the lover with all his might?

  9. I boasted of the beauty of my verse about him, and he said to me:

    "You learned it from the stringing of my teeth and their necklace."

  10. And when he saw that my tears were blood, he thought his cheek

    had appeared to my tears, which then took on its rose's hue.

  11. And if my heart had acquired his heart's hardness,

    I would have forgotten him, but it acquired his cheek's tenderness.

  12. And I offered my tears as a bribe—they were pearls—

    yet he gave me nothing; if only he had given them back!

  13. O our beloveds, you are our aim and our wishes;

    would a lovesick lover turn away from his wishes and his aim?

  14. You have settled in the two palaces, my heart and my eye;

    and how firmly the master rules over his slave's property!

  15. For if you say, "Syria is not Egypt," then one of pure heart

    sees nearness in oneness, with no distance from him.

Sol 6.1