Sol 6.1

  1. She came swaying like a branch, though the branch is dry,

    and gazes with a long-lashed, drowsy eye.

  2. Full-hipped, she shames the bān tree's shoot in grace,

    and mocks the Khattī spear when measured against it.

  3. One of those with restrained gaze, slender-bellied,

    delicate in the fold of her waist, slender and companionable.

  4. Her radiance surpasses the moon on the night of its fullness,

    and it retreats to its low horizon with head bowed.

  5. Whenever she glances toward a forbearing man, he is stirred

    by passion, and troubling fancies win him over.

  6. She came to my dwelling, swaying proudly, while night was pitch-dark,

    just as a companionable beloved visited me late at night.

  7. For no garden that dew has crowned with flowers,

    as brides' crowns are adorned,

  8. over which rain wept until its blossoms laughed,

    and over which gushing clouds unfastened their spouts,

  9. which the hand of the rains clothed in embroidery, as though

    Persia had gifted it with varied designs,

  10. and which, after the rain, grew proud before a paradise

    whose ripe fruit no hand had ever touched,

  11. where the flowers' bloom gleams within their calyxes,

    like bright stars guarded by the Milky Way's sword,

  12. around which the tale-bearing breeze circles, so that there bend

    the slender boughs on its hills, swaying gracefully,

  13. and where the orator of the great trees stood singing,

    wearing a yellow-dyed shirt woven by the dew,

  14. answered by gray doves with Maʿbad's melodies,

    which sing on the boughs as gentle companions,

  15. recalling for me the days of youthful dalliance, so that I turn aside,

    with troubled whisperings in my heart from overwhelming sorrow,

  16. is lovelier in splendor than she, when she approached

    and greeted me as gazelles in their coverts greet.

  17. And how could it, when the one who embroidered her folds is a youth

    whose ancestral roots have raised him toward lofty attainments?

  18. He ascended the loftiest summit among the heights of letters;

    so who can match him, and who can be his like?

  19. So, O son of those who built up glory through their might,

    and who compete for nothing but glory,

  20. I sent verse, arranged like the nights,

    resembling the pearls of my tears when my companion departed.

  21. And you charged me to answer it—how welcome

    a request! Yet how could I match it?

  22. I repaid you with small pebbles of pearls, resembling

    flower-brides that the dark nights have unveiled.

  23. So if anything in it delights a beholder,

    then I have kindled it from the light of your description.

  24. And here she is for you, walking gently and swaying

    in shyness, while the eye steals glances at her,

  25. toward your door, hoping for acceptance as a favor;

    may she find favor through nearness to you, and feel at ease.

  26. So may you never cease to offer a friend literary gifts,

    throughout all time, as long as schools resound with knowledge,

  27. and as long as the gardens' turtledove laments in song,

    and a longing soul yearns, far from home and despairing.

Sol 6.1