Sol 6.1

  1. By your life, no preacher has drawn tears from my eyes

    with a deeper impact than this tale.

  2. For its meaning has become a lesson to my heart,

    which melts at its remembrance with heartache and pain.

  3. And I was troubled by two lovers' ordeal: scarcely had sweetness come

    to their life in love before tragedy struck them.

  4. Two gentle companions, sweeter in speech than flower nectar,

    And purer in their pasture than the gazelle of the leafy grove;

  5. Both devoted to kindness by nature and instinct,

    When others did good through acquired habit.

  6. Whenever they found someone in distress, they grieved for him,

    And would not sleep until he found peace and they could sleep.

  7. They never parted except to gather their sustenance,

    And never came together except in praise of God.

  8. Thus they knew no watering place but virtue,

    And were accustomed to no brimming source but simplicity.

  9. Both content with the ease in which they lived,

    They cherished no aspiration but marriage.

  10. And they were most deserving of it, that they might exemplify

    Two partners in life who shared bliss.

  11. But it was not long before separation came between them,

    And scarcely had the two hearts joined before they were torn apart.

  12. So one beloved died by drowning, and the other died of grief;

    And when their two mothers learned of it, both died together.

  13. So the islanders were saddened by what befell the

    clan, and took to weeping with repeated, echoing cries.

  14. And nothing consoled me but my certainty that it

    had been rewarded by the Creator with something loftier and more spacious.

Sol 6.1