THE WING OF SEPARATION

by: Ibn Darrâj Al-Andalûsi (11th century)

      HE wing of separation
      Bore me away;
      The fluttering heart was dismayed
      And bore away her senses ...
      Had she but seen me,
      When my soul was intent on speeding the journey by night,
      When my sounding steps
      Held converse with the demons of the desert--
      When I wandered through the waste
      In the shadows of night,
      While the roar of the lion was heard
      From his lair among the reeds--
      When the brilliant Pleiades circled,
      Like dark-eyed maidens in the green woods;
      And the stars were borne round
      Like wine-cups,
      Filled by a fair maid
      And served by a watchful attendant--
      When the Milky Way
      Was as the gray hairs of age
      Upon the head of gloomy night;
      And the ardor of my resolution,
      And the piercer of darkness
      Were equally terrible;
      When the eyelids of the stars
      Were closed for weariness--
      Ah, then she had known
      That fate itself obeyed my will
      And that I was worthy of the favor of Ibn Aâmir.
       
      TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY J.B. TREND

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