Sol 6.1

  1. The recompense for a youth who courts separation

    Is that his two eyes shun sleep.

  2. And if loyal longing goads him,

    He wrestles with it for hostile patience;

  3. And eyelids that drench everything

    Except a heart thirsting for news.

  4. Thus was I repaid when I parted from people

    For whose departure I wore two robes of mourning:

  5. Mines of wisdom and rains in drought,

    And stars of the neighborhood, and leaders of the assembly.

  6. They went far from me, yet my heart is with them;

    And I was absent, but my affection was not absent from them.

  7. And but for my misfortune, they would not have left me,

    And they were between my eyelid and my eye's dark pupil.

  8. So speak of the plight of a weak captive

    Who seeks refuge from enemies with enemies.

Sol 6.1