Increase My Bewilderment with Your Overwhelming Love
- By Ibn al-Farid:
Increase my bewilderment with your overwhelming love,
And have mercy on the heart that is scorched by your passion.
And if I ask to see you in reality,
Grant me that, do not let my answer be: you will not see.
O heart! You promised me patience in love,
Be cautious not to become weary and distressed.
For love is life itself; die of it,
Indeed, it is your right to perish and be excused.
Tell those who came before me, and those who
Came after, and those who witness my pain,
Take a lesson from me, follow my example, and let them speak
Of my passion among people.
Indeed, I secluded myself with my beloved, and between us
There exists a secret more delicate than the breeze, as it drifts.
And my gaze was granted a glance that I had longed for,
Thus, I became renowned while once I was a stranger.
I was astonished between his beauty and majesty,
And thus, the tongue of my state began to declare for me.
So direct your eyes towards the beauty of his face,
You will find all kinds of beauty depicted therein.
If all beauty were embodied in a visage,
Upon seeing him, it would glorify and exult.
If My Status in Love is Recognized by You
- By Ibn al-Farid:
If my status in love is recognized by you,
What I have experienced has wasted my days.
A wish that captured my spirit for a time,
But today, I consider it mere delusions of dreams.
And if my overwhelming longing for your love
Is a sin, then my love has increased my transgressions.
If I had known that love would lead to this demise,
I would not have defied my reproachers.
I entrusted my heart to one who does not cherish it,
I looked behind me, yet did not gaze forward.
Indeed, he struck me with an arrow from his glances,
It pierced my heart; alas, my longing for the archer.
Alas for a glance from him that I cherish,
For my ultimate desire is simply to behold the archer.
Love Does Not Prevent Our Speech
- By Al-Mutanabbi:
Love does not prevent the tongues from speaking,
And the most delightful complaint from a lover is one openly voiced.
Would that the beloved who forsook me, forsook the dreams,
Without any fault, would maintain connection to my plight.
Had you graced us, you would not realize the depths of our emotions,
Individual colors from the beauty we behold.
Our breaths kindled until I was truly concerned
That the reproachers might combust amidst our union.
I would sacrifice for the farewell, which I tracked
With my gaze alone, amidst the sobs that ensued.
I denied the pathway of events once,
Then I confessed it; it became our routine.
I crossed through this world filled with isolation,
During both the hours of dawn and those weakening times.
You Kindled the Fire of Love in My Heart
- By Abu Nuwas:
You ignited the fire of love within my heart,
Then distanced yourself from the sin.
Until, when I submerged in the ocean of affection,
And the waves swelled within my heart.
I disclosed my secret and you forgot me,
How unjust is this, my love?
How can I avoid the pull of affection?
Do you not fear the consequences from the Creator?
Love Teaches Me Not to Love
- By Mahmoud Darwish:
Love teaches me not to love, and to open the window
To the path ahead. Can you step out of the call of the sweet basil
And divide me into two: you, and what remains of the song?
Love is love. In every love, I see love’s death from a prior death,
And a breeze that returns to drive the herds home _through the wind between the clouds and valleys.
Cannot you escape the buzz of my blood to soothe this ardor?
And withdraw the bee from the flower’s thorns?
Love is love, asking me: how did the wine return to its mother and burn?
And how sweet is love when it tortures, and when it ruins the daffodil of the song?
Love teaches me not to love and leaves me in the midst of the foliage.
The Seven Days of Love
- By Mahmoud Darwish:
Sunday: The Station of Nahawand
He loves you, come closer like a cloud… come closer
To the stranger by the window who sobs for me:
I adore her. Descend like a star… descend
On the traveler to remain on his journey:
I love you. Spread like the darkness… spread
In the red rose of the lover, and blush
Like the tent that flusters in the king’s isolation…
Wednesday: The Narcissus
Twenty-five years she has lived. She was born
As she wishes…and walks around her reflection
As if she is not herself in the water: I need
Love to leap over the tower… and I distanced
Myself from her shadow, letting the lightning pass between them
As a stranger passing through his poem…
Oh, the Wonders of Love!
- By Al-Mu’tadid Ibn Abbas:
Oh, the wonders of love! What does it do?
It subjugates the king of the ages and makes him yield.
Love possesses enormous power; its nature is such
That no matter what is said, my heart heeds.
If he were to offend by neglecting my essence,
I would approach him in my state, pleading.
What benefit is there in my condition in matters of love?
Love’s state remains ever higher and loftier.
In Love, There is Awe and Torment
- By Abu Nuwas:
In love there are wonders and torment,
And therein, O people, are extraordinary marvels. For those who have not tasted love, I am a person with experiences
In love that echo. The mark of the lover on his face:
This is the captive of love inscribed. Love has its traps
On the path of the enamored laid down. Until, when a lover passes by,
Time for a human is drawn in fervor.
He tells him, with eyes sparkling
That plays with him while his patience is upended.
It has no flaw except its kindness,
Certainly, what flaw is there in the kind?
He slanders my reputation, and I guard his integrity,
Just as the beloved is also slandered.
Those We Avoid in Love are Also Avoiding Us
- By Al-Buhturi:
Those who avoid us in love are those we cannot avoid,
And those who distance themselves in passion are the very ones we approach.
Alas! There must always be someone plotting against our separation,
Yet they might bring near that which feels far away.
Is it each day that a provocateur contrives,
Pouring over us, or a watchman we observe?
Our affection is full of lamentations and yearnings,
And the one who falls in love shall prevail.
Thereafter, the beloved’s embrace does not facilitate
Connections for him, nor does the beloved’s residence accompany him.
He resides in a land that now obscures his detours,
While in another realm he indulges his desires.
He douses the hillside of the ancient shadows
with drops that spill from the summit, and they are ssought.
How many nights did I spend there in tranquility,
With the gaze of the eyes of the ill under white rubies?
When will his phantom return to me,
And the piercing anguish resounding shall resume?
I do not forget him; when he raised his neck to me
And when his locks inclined to my breast upon swaying.
A caress that shatters patience and the agony of its end,
And ignites passion or spills tears on the ground.