Another Poem in the Same Vein

You kings of beauty, be gentle with my secret; you who are sober, take pity on the reeling of a drunken man. You have outdone the fragrance of musk in sweetness, and overpowered the loveliness of the rose in its scent. Wherever you settle, like a breeze of paradise, the ones who arrive find rest and joy. Eyes that taught Harut at Babylon so that people could learn magic from them. You who scold me, stop blaming me for loving them; your advice has come out as something monstrous. Leave off my story and my longing be, if you have no real knowledge of such a thing. I have come to think love's young folly ignorant, yet passion has left me smitten all the same. The corners of those eyes have left me wandering, lost and bewildered, across the empty wastelands. I scatter tears whenever I string my verses together, so my words come out as both poetry and weeping. The embers of those cheeks have burned my heart, and they leave live coals smoldering in my ribs. Were it not for the sin of my glancing eye, my weak heart would not be carrying this burden. My story is like a soul made to bear, through a tyrant's injustice, the guilt of another. My patience broke over a tale of love that, told to the mountains, would make the very rocks weep. And my ruin at the slender throat of every gazelle, a throat that slaughters onlookers with longing. They came forth, and the hills keep calling out: why is this breeze so laden with perfume? I will never sober from the drunkenness of my life, if you pour me wine from those sweet lips. You who depart from Layla's tribe, it is a wonder how you can bear to endure. You who kill me with beauty, you hold half its portions, and you have left the other half to Joseph, son of Jacob. May you endure, Kaaba of beauty, honored and dear, while those wild with love for you wander, disheveled and dust-covered. Do not blame me if I have left off the pleasure of my talk; for with what other talk could I open my heart? May my life be long in this youthful passion, and by my life, God will bring about something new after this.