Ode CXXV: The bond that bound me to

The bond that bound me to Asma has now been cut in twain, after all our close companionship and the love that was our secret :

She has taken another friend in place of me ; and well she knew that I would never abide in the valley of abasement, the object of men's contempt :

Self-respecting am I, patient and enduring when Famine bites hard, of the best of thy tribe whether alive or dead.

When she saw that hoariness had overspread my head, after Youth had fled away — and grey hairs turn a woman's heart to weariness !—

She averted her face and said — ' I see that grey ness has covered his top : 'tis only Youth that can rise superior to all obstacles ! '

The dew of her lips, whenas she rises from sleep, is as though it had caught the savour of an evening draught of pure wine, the first flow from the grapes, chosen as best by the vintners,

The first wine drawn from the amphora raised high upon its props, [in a flagon] wreathed with the blossom of hinna and sweet basil, with a piece of linen bound over its spout ;

For half a year of successive months it had remained stored in the gateway of Affan [exposed on the roof] : he climbs up stair after stair

Until he attains to it — wine of white grapes, clear and pure : he bribes the traders and the interpreters in order to make it his own.

And many the easy-paced, fleet she-camel with which I have traversed a land wherein the guides were astray, a far-extending waterless wilderness —

Deserts where the winds sweep hither and thither, with no comrade therein save the barking foxes and the hooting and screeching owls.