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.
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- TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY
J.B. TREND
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