I Love You

"Ah, Sari, my dear. My verse would not rest until it confessed my feeling..."

For your eyes, this tender anthem:
"I love you...
Would that love did not exist.
I love you in the throbbing of the ribs,
and I go on, filling my lips to the brim:
I love you... O you in whom I have seen all existence.
I love you: a sweet scent breathing out its fragrance,
and a warble on the lips of maidens,
repeated by the melodies of shepherds,
an anthem that stirs the sorrow of lovers.
I love you: a full moon overflowing with radiance,
and a dewy bough that flutters above,
and a tune embracing the star of the sky,
like a mother's lullaby over her newborn's name.
I love you—would that love did not exist.

My tender lips cradle it...
if ever my heart inclines to another—
a life fragrant with the perfume of hopes,
with my sweet and limpid hymn of praise...
in her glance a blooming rose,
pure as your own fragrant breath,
tickled by the night-wandering breeze,
an anthem to the field and the water-channel,
kindling the passion of thirsting hearts,
to wash our darkened horizons—
our doves, free and singing,
with its sweet and plaintive strains
caressing his slumbering eyelids,
if ever my heart inclines to another."

Baghdad — Hasan al-Bayati
The Higher Teachers' College