Sol 6.1

  1. The reproachers came early in the bright light of

    dawn, saying to me, “Will you not come to your senses?”

  2. And they blame me for you, O daughter of Abd

    Allah; my heart is snared with you.

  3. I do not know, now that you have begun to cut me off,

    whether an enemy reproaches me or a friend.

  4. The sweetest perfume is the perfume of Umm Ali:

    musk from pods and blended ambergris.

  5. She mixed it with another perfume and with ben-tree oil;

    it is dark and gleaming upon both hands.

  6. Long, thick, flowing tresses adorned her,

    and a smooth, fragrant lock upon her brow,

  7. and sweet front teeth like chrysanthemum blossoms,

    neither short and broken nor long and jutting forward.

  8. Gleaming—you would think that, when

    the sinking stars are due to disappear,

  9. strong wine greeted them at dawn, like blood from the body's

    depths, showing you a mote—dark-red and pure.

  10. The Jewish merchant kept it safe for two

    years; aging heightened its fragrance.

  11. Then the seal was broken from the rim of the

    wine jar, and the Jewish merchant's time to sell had come.

  12. So an aquiline-nosed, deft, noble man bought it,

    openhanded, stout, a handsome youth.

  13. Then they called for the morning draught, and there came

    a singing-girl with a ewer in her right hand.

  14. I offered it over choice wine, like the eye of a

    rooster; the strainer had clarified the wine's choicest portion.

  15. Tart before mixing; but when

    mixed, its taste delights whoever tastes it.

  16. And bubbles floated upon it, like

    red rubies, made lovely by pouring between vessels.

  17. I killed its strength with a white, clear stream,

    sweet, its mixing made lovely by pouring between vessels,

  18. atop a height whose peaks cannot be reached:

    the vulture and the Egyptian vulture grow weary above it.

  19. Then the mixing water was water from clouds,

    neither stagnant and foul nor trodden through.

  20. It lay in its expanse, enclosed by

    rock; behold, within it was a lovely sight:

  21. a lower part ringed with thorn trees, and its upper

    part smooth, slippery rock that exhausts the ibex.

  22. A place where shade falls, encircled by the curved sand

    dune, while a fierce wind sweeps away its debris.

Sol 6.1