yā man li-qalbin mutayyamin kalifin |
yahdhī bi-khawdin marīḍati n-naẓarī |
tamshī l-huwaynā ’idhā mashat fuḍulan |
wa-hya ka-mithli l-‘uslūji fī sh-shajarī122 |
Meter (al-munsariḥ): XXSL LXLS LSSL / XXSL LXLS LSSL.
‘Umar Ibn Abī Rabī‘ah (d. 93/712 or 103/720) lived in Mecca and many of his somewhat frivolous love lyrics are about affairs with women who visit the town as pilgrims. His ghazal is often contrasted with the more serious, self-sacrificing ghazal called ‘Udhrite. The poem begins as if the poet were yet another hopeless lover, but it soon becomes obvious that he is boasting of his success with women.
Who’ll help my heart, enslaved, doting?
It raves about a pretty girl with languid looks,
Who walks so slowly when she walks, dressed in her shift;
she’s like a newly sprouted twig upon a tree.
I don’t know where to look when she is looking—
and then one night we met; it was our Destiny.
I spied her and her womenfolk; they walked
between the Station and the Stone:123
White-skinned, attractive virgins, sauntering,
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they walked with an easy gait, the gait of oryx cows,
Possessing beauty and attractiveness alike,
possessing gentle coquetry with bashfulness.
They listened to her as she spoke, one day,
(they thought she was the best thing in the world);
She said, in jest, to one of her companions:
“We’ll spoil our circumambulation on account of ‘Umar!124
Come on girl, show yourself to him, let him see us,
and signal to him, girl, but coyly!”125
The girl told her: “I signaled to him. He said No!”
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And then she hurried off and followed me!
Whoever drinks, when she awakes, the water of
her mouth, drinks musk and cool, refreshing water
Her eyes are large and black, she’s plump and lovable,
and, flirtingly, she tosses stones with her left hand.126