Love

O breeze of the wind

by Ibn al-Arabi 1165–1240

Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson (1911) · From The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq (Nicholson, 1911)

Love

O breeze of the wind, bear to the gazelles of Najd this message: 'I am faithful to the covenant which ye know.'
And say to the young girl of the tribe, 'Our trysting-place is at the guarded pasture beside the hills of Najd on the Sabbath morn,
On the red hill towards the cairns and on the right hand of the rivulets and the solitary landmark.'
And if her words be true and she feel the same tormenting desire for me as I feel
For her, then we shall meet covertly in the heat of noon at her tent with the most inviolable troth,
And she and I will communicate what we suffer of love and sore tribulation and grievous pain.
Is this a vague dream or glad tidings revealed in sleep or the speech of an hour in whose speech was my happy fortune?
Perchance he who brought the objects of desire (into my heart) will bring them face to face with me, and their gardens will bestow on me the gathered roses.

✦ ✦ ✦

Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, poem 57

MLA

al-Arabi, Ibn. “O breeze of the wind.” Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/ibn-arabi/56/.

Chicago

al-Arabi, Ibn. “O breeze of the wind.” Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/ibn-arabi/56/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Ibn al-Arabi