Sol 6.1

  1. I say to a night-traveler in a north wind, yet sleeping,

    Within whom lightning opens a wakeful one's eyelids:

  2. It gathered from scattered parts, yet together came

    Its sides, until it became a single body.

  3. Before you lies the land of al-Sham, so water the familiar dwellings

    Of our loved ones—rather, their memory in those dwellings.

  4. A land where my heart dwells; if I visit another,

    Then it is only a seeker's passing visit and a newcomer's call.

  5. At the thought of it, I disparage my homeland and birthplace,

    And where maidservants' hands passed me from one to another,

  6. And where, whenever I cast my gaze, it was delighted by

    My peers' playgrounds and my father's birthplace.

  7. But in al-Sham I have a maiden of youthful passion,

    For whose sake I deemed reason's plea misguided.

Sol 6.1