Umayyad poetry

Ghazal (erotic love)

Bring her out, swaying like a wild cow \\ Amid five of her age, with swelling breasts.

A cloistered one is she, the texture of her cheeks \\ Suffused with the water of youth.

...

"Do you love her?" they asked. Said I, "Much -- \\ To the number of stars and peblles and grains of dust!"

Her fatal charms, her neck, enhanced \\ By a colouring that glittered like gold,

Recalled the glory of the sun \\ Emerging from darkness and clouds.

-- Umar ibn Abi Rabi`a (644-712 or 721)

al-Hubb al-`Udhri (platonic love)

By God, I can see that many a tear \\ As our parting extends shall more profusely flow.

If I say, "The love in me, o Buthayna, is fatal to me," \\ She answers, "It abides, and shall increase."

If I say, "Restore some of my reason that I may live \\ Among me," she answers, "Far is it from your reach!"

So neither was I refused what I came requseting \\ Nor does her love, among all things that perish, perish

--Jamil ibn Ma`mar (d. 701)

Dove in the wood, wny do you weep? \\ Has a consort left, or a lover been unkind?

Passion and yearning called out to you when, movingly, \\ The hailer of the morning trilled,

Echoing doves that hearkened to her voice, \\ Each to each kindly and responsive.

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