It neighbors the stars and occupies the clouds —

a mountain made ready as a gate to Paradise.

The sun bathes in the parting of its hair,

and when she sets, it is by compulsion and in exile.

She carries light to the world, having

borrowed her dye from Lebanon's eyelid.

The grape cluster laughs upon its flanks,

the apples glory, and Kawthar melts away.

The cooing birds sang it their love,

and the great trees echoed them in plaintive song and reproach.

Dawn shows itself upon its hills,

golden-trained, its mantle wet with dew.

The dews drip down from its side,

fragrant with myrtle, wormwood, and sweet malab.

O brother of the lights, giver of radiance,

sweet are your horizons, your water, your highlands!

Your proud cedar is the Lote Tree of the Utmost Bound;

I fancied it a resting place in the Garden of Refuge.

Maidens wander in its shades,

languid of glance, comely and loving;

their cupbearer goes round with the cups, and

desires have been showered upon the pourer.

•

The grotto of Qadisha — in its depths

the generations have wandered, and history has roamed.

O watercourse of the lofty twilight, O

marvel to the eyes, rugged steeps and mountain passes!

Before the universe and the world you lay

upon the Creator's palm, still

a wasteland.

Temple of majesty and enchantment: were

a sinner to approach it in his pride, he would repent.

This sweet stream ran down the slope

from the springs of the cedars and poured itself out in torrents.

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He gazed