The Golden Ring

... from the diwan “Enchantment,” soon to appear, by Dr. Badi' Haqqi.

“Set me as a ring upon your heart, as a ring upon your arm, for love is strong as death.”
The Song of Songs

You see it found the path yielding, and went its way,
leaned upon a finger, then circled round;
it climbed a branch, tender and dewy —
you see it savored the luscious fruit;
five candles ranged themselves about it,
and it was for them the flame and the spark.

And it roamed across the delicate silver,
a crescent pillowed on the waves of the seas;
on the ladder of melody it slept and drowsed,
and let flow a dream steeped deep in fire;
and it strayed proudly on the ambergris litter
and drank of the perfume the breath of the arar;
from it a guileless ray runs riot,
and about it a phantom of yellow glows.

Free, coquettish, it leans and lavishes
on its tender young bough the bounty of gold;
then it slips, docile to the rein, little by little,
and sinks down in humbleness and brokenness;
and if the memory of some delicious wedding stirs it,
it tosses, plaintive, and leaps and surges.

From the publishing house of the magazine al-Adib