I'm going out,
flies, so relax,
make love.


Translated by Robert Hass

I'll rock you in my arms !
O my pearl, do not forsake me.

Your beauty's rising fame
Filled me with a mad longing
To beg at your door.

Just one glance from you
Sent me into love's consuming flames,
Like one tumbling down the skies.

O ravishing moon, don't hide yourself !
I pray some oid job tempts you out,
So that we see your radiant form.

How much like Sheereen or Badwaljamal,
Or a hourie emerging from Paradise,

o


MY dear and only Love, I pray
That little world of thee
Be govern'd by no other sway
Than purest monarchy;
For if confusion have a part
(Which virtuous souls abhor),
And hold a synod in thine heart,
I'll never love thee more.

Like Alexander I will reign,
And I will reign alone;
My thoughts did evermore disdain
A rival on my throne.
He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch,
To gain or lose it all.

I'll be loving you always
With a love that's true always
When the things you've planned
Need a helping hand

I will understand always
Days may not be fair always
That's when I'll be thee always
Not for just an hour
Not for just a day
Not fr just a year
But always.

Everything went, and the whole day long
I felt so blue
For the longest while I forget to smile,
Then I met you
Now that my blue days have-
Now that I have found you at last.

If you refuse me once, and think again,
I will complain.
You are deceiv'd, love is no work of art,
It must be got and born,
Not made and worn,
By every one that hath a heart.

Or do you think they more than once can die,
Whom you deny?
Who tell you of a thousand deaths a day,
Like the old poets feign
And tell the pain
They met, but in the common way?

Or do you think 't too soon to yield,
And quit the field?
Nor is that right, they yield that first entreat;
Once one may crave for love,
But more would prove

If you have loved a brave story
Tell it but rarely;
And, with due faith in its glory,
Render it barely.
Then must the listener, hearing
Your tale of wonder,
Let his own hoping and fearing
Tear him asunder.

If we must part,
Then let it be like this.
Not heart on heart,
Nor with the useless anguish of a kiss;
But touch mine hand and say:
"Until to-morrow or some other day,
If we must part".

Words are so weak
When love hath been so strong;
Let silence speak:
"Life is a little while, and love is long;
A time to sow and reap,
And after harvest a long time to sleep,
But words are weak."

If we knew when friends around us
Closely press to say goodbye
Which among the lips that kiss us
First would 'neath the daisies lie
We would clasp our arms around them
Looking on them through our tears
Tender words of loving kindness
We would whisper in their ears.

If we had met when leaves were green,
And fate to us less hard had proved,
And naught had been of what has been,
We might have loved as none have loved.

If we had met as girl and boy,
The world of pleasure at our feet,
Our joy had been a perfect joy;
We might have met, but did not meet.

Nor less in youth's full passionate day,
A woman you and I a man,
We might have loved and found a way
No laws could check, no vows could ban.

Too late! Too sad! A year ago,
Even then perhaps, in spite of fate

29

If those I loved were lost
The Crier's voice would tell me—
If those I loved were found
The bells of Ghent would ring—

Did those I loved repose
The Daisy would impel me.
Philip—when bewildered
Bore his riddle in!