I behold a garden ready for reaping
About This Entry
The theme of this brief Arabic poem is the loneliness of maidenhood.
I behold a garden ready for reaping,
though I see no gardener’s hand reaching for it.
Woe is me! Youth elapses in waste,
and the one I shall not name will remain alone.
Translated by Jonathan P. Decter.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.
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I have a beautiful friend
Ismā‘īl: I have a beautiful friend who repaid the helpful with the harmful and permitted what was forbidden to her.Qasmūna: Like the sun from which the full moon perpetually acquires its light…
O gazelle always grazing
O gazelle, always grazing in a meadow,
I’ve imitated your wildness and dark-eyed beauty.
Come evening we are both alone,
without companion, and blaming fate’s decree.
When I sent you that knife
When I sent you that knife, I thought its name was an omen, and indeed the augury and presage became true: the knife signifies that you are inhabiting my heart, its cutting signifies rupture and…
See the nature of the winds
See the nature of the winds, blowing from four corners,
divided at times, and given control.
Sometimes one is roused up, and its power becomes mighty,
and sometimes it is assuaged, and its power…
And the fleas charge
And the fleas charge like war-horses; they swoop down like birds to devour my skin. They caper around me like he-goats, and rouse me out of my sleep. I have become weary of killing both young and old…
And there are men who coveted you
To one of the great men of the generation.And there are men who coveted you, and they are in the depths, and you are far above,And how can a camel be noble as an eagle, and a son of a donkey like…
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I have a beautiful friend
Ismā‘īl: I have a beautiful friend who repaid the helpful with the harmful and permitted what was forbidden to her.Qasmūna: Like the sun from which the full moon perpetually acquires its light…
O gazelle always grazing
O gazelle, always grazing in a meadow,
I’ve imitated your wildness and dark-eyed beauty.
Come evening we are both alone,
without companion, and blaming fate’s decree.
When I sent you that knife
When I sent you that knife, I thought its name was an omen, and indeed the augury and presage became true: the knife signifies that you are inhabiting my heart, its cutting signifies rupture and…
See the nature of the winds
See the nature of the winds, blowing from four corners,
divided at times, and given control.
Sometimes one is roused up, and its power becomes mighty,
and sometimes it is assuaged, and its power…
And the fleas charge
And the fleas charge like war-horses; they swoop down like birds to devour my skin. They caper around me like he-goats, and rouse me out of my sleep. I have become weary of killing both young and old…
And there are men who coveted you
To one of the great men of the generation.And there are men who coveted you, and they are in the depths, and you are far above,And how can a camel be noble as an eagle, and a son of a donkey like…