The Story of the Pearls

Hind came complaining to her mother —
glory to Him who joined the two luminaries!
She said to her: “This morning light
came to me, and kissed me twice,
and fled; and when the dusk saw me,
it granted me two locks of its hair,
and melted some of its color into liquid
and with it lined my two eyes with kohl.
And I knew not, mother — nay, it embraced me
and cast upon my smiling lips two stars.
So I hid my face; but it,
toward my breast, mother, stretched out two hands —
and oh, my astonishment, when I opened my eyes
and beheld at my breast two pomegranates!
And the bough kept at me until it bent
and bowed at my feet in worship, twice;
and upon its head were two roses,
and it offered me those two roses.
And I grew afraid of the bough when its leaves
murmured two words in my ear,
so I went to the sea for refreshment,
and its wind carried me on two waves.
It is the sea, mother — how many a youth
lies drowned, and how many a youth hangs between and between!
So here I am, complaining of them all to you:
by God, mother — what do you say?”

And her mother said, laughing,
swaying with wonder in two mantles:
“I know them, one by one,
and what you have tasted, I have tasted — twice!”