The eyes of the young lad
About This Entry
This wine poem exemplifies the Andalusi poetic tradition of poetry with its themes of love, beauty, youth, and wine. Here, the narrator is captivated by the eyes of the young man who is serving wine. The poem evokes a scene of a group of wine-drinkers, served by a beautiful cupbearer (called a sākī), hearing birds call in the early dawn before the stars have faded from the sky.
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The eyes of the young lad who serves me have ravished my heart:
His master has been captured without a net.
Though waters can quench the fires of love
My desire for you is yet like a flame within me.
Come my friend, come take the bright cup
Of sweet juice of pomegranate at the time of dawn
From the hands of the cup-bearer like wheels of gold
Beset with chrysolite and black marble.
And listen to the voice of the turtle-dove and to winged birds
Intone their songs upon the high places of the city
While the image of stars in the morning dawn
Appears like sapphires upon a pale garment.
Translated by Leon J. Weinberger.
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Credits
Samuel ha-Nagid, “Captured Without a Net,” from Jewish Prince in Moslem Spain: Selected Poems of Samuel Ibn Nagrela, ed. and trans. Leon J. Weinberger (University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1973), 108. Used with permission of the publisher. Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Department of Manuscripts, Arabe 6094, fol. 75v, detail.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.
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Why do you complain about me, O maiden,
and grumble in your tent about your beloved?
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