The Words of Love from Arabs

HOW CAN a pain in the chest be softened?
The darts of death are closer than your hands.
Too much loss; too much want; absence. I tremble,
You can’t come to me, I can’t come to you.
Our love is a small bird tied by a child,
The bird sips the lake of death and the boy
Goes on with his game. He doesn’t have the sense
To feel the bird’s pain: and the wings can’t fly.
I know a thousand roads, a thousand places,
But without a heart is nowhere to go.
“MAJNUN LAYLA, al-Udhari and Wightman”

MAN, HAVE done! Forget her, - one too far to comfort thee!
Who would his love garner first let him sunder it.
Shed the love that fails thee. Strong be thou, and break with her.
Keep thy gifts for friendship, freed from thy wilderment.
“LABID, Blunt”

ENDLESSLY I search the skies
To find a star lit by your ayes;
I ask each traveller what land
Breathes fragrantly of you. I stand
Lonely, the wind upon my face
To tell what news there is, what trace…
But when a song recalls your name
I walk the roads, endless and same,
Seeking a face that bears and the sign
Of having seen you, one like mine
"ABU BAKR AL-TURTUSI, Morland"

The Book : The Wisdom of the ARABS
(PUUJ 892.7 WIS)