Parted Lovers

Wherefore, O fair one, dost withhold thy messengers
From the lover whose frame is filled with the pains of thee?
Knowest thou not that thy lover awaiteth nothing from fate
But to hear the voice of thy greeting?
If parting be decreed for the two of us,
Stand yet a little, while I gaze upon thy face.
I know not if my heart be held back within my frame
Or if it goeth forth upon thy wanderings.
By the life of love, remember the days of thy longing, as I—
I remember the nights of thy delight.
As thine image passeth into my dream,
So let me pass, I entreat thee, into thy dreams.
Between me and thee roar the waves of a sea of tears
And I cannot pass over unto thee.
But O if thy steps should draw nigh to cross—
Then would its waters be divided at the touch of thy foot.
Would that after my death, unto mine ears should come
The sound of the golden bells upon thy skirts!
Or shouldst thou be asking how fareth thy beloved, from the depths of the tomb
Would ask of thy love and thy welfare.
Verily, to thy shedding of mine heart’s blood
There be two witnesses—thy cheeks and thy lips.
How sayest thou it is not true, since these be my witnesses
For my blood, and that thine hands have shed it?
Why desirest thou my death, whilst I but desire
To add years unto the years of thy life?
Though thou dost rob my slumber in the night of my longing,
Would I not give the sleep of mine eyes unto thine eyelids?
The fire of thee licketh up the waters of tears,
Yea, and the waters of thy'tears wear the hearts of stone.
But now I come into the fire of longing for thee and the torrents of my weeping!
Alas, my heart! between my tears and thy glowing coals!
Yea, between the bitter and the sweet standeth my heart—
The gall of parting, and the honey of thy kisses.
After thy words have beaten out my heart into thin plates,
Thine hands have cut it into shreds.
It is the likeness of rubies over pearls
What time I behold thy lips over thy teeth.
The sun is on thy face and thou spreadest out the night
Over his radiance with the clouds of thy locks.
Fine silk and broidered work are the covering of thy body,
But grace and beauty are the covering of thine eyes.
The adornment of maidens is the work of human hands,
But thou—majesty with sweetness are thine adornment.
Sun and moon, the Plough and the Pleiads are zealous
To be brothers and sisters of thine;
Men and maidens think, ah! would they were but free
To be thy slaves and thine handmaidens!
As for my share of worldly wealth, I ask for nought
But a thread of scarlet from thy lips, a girdle from thy waist.
My sweet wild honey is between thy lips,
My spikenard and my myrrh between thy breasts.
I have placed thee as a seal upon my right hand; O would that I too
Might be as a seal upon thine arms.
May I forget to discern my right hand from my left, O my doe.
If I ever forget the love of thine espousals.
Separation maketh my heart bitter, when I remember
Upon my lips the sweet honey of thy kisses.
With the fragrance of thy pure myrrh will I endow me with fragrance:
Then perchance, through my fragrance, I may kiss thy lips.
Lo, the glory of women is the praise of them— but thou—
Thy praises draw glory from thee.
In the field of the daughters of delight, the sheaves of love
Make obeisance unto thy sheaf.
Would that I might live until I had gathered
Spices and myrrh from amid thy footprints.
I cannot hear thy voice, but I hear Upon the secret places of my heart, the sound of thy steps.
On the day when thou wilt revive
The victims whom love for thee hath slain— on the day when thy dead shall live anew,
Then turn again to my soul to restore it to my body; for on the day
Of thy departure, when thou wentest forth, it went out after thee.
' Ask, O doe of grace, for the peace of thy lover,
Should Time ask of thee thy request.
Return, so our God shall restore thee to the haven
Of thy desire, and to the land of thy true belonging.