Whom dost thou seek to join, O my Heart, when thou knowest that the beloved is seated within thy own self?
If we entertain any longer within our hearts the beloved that hath abandoned us, we shall only waste ourselves away yet further.
CXXVI
The Losing of the Sense of a Dignified Reserve
She
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The door that is bolted with the bolt of modesty will yet yield to the axe of an overpowering love.
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Heartless is this thing called Love: for it oppresseth my heart even in the dead of night.
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I try indeed to shut my love up within my heart: but like a sneeze it breaketh out of itself without a warning.
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I was proud that I was correct and decorous in my behaviour: but alas! love rendeth every veil and showeth itself in public.
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The stern self-respect that refuseth to seek the beloved though he hath cruelly deserted, is a thing unknown to the lovesick fair.
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How thou lovest me, O Grief! Thou wantest me to follow after him who hath deserted me cruelly!
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If the beloved but favour us with his love, we at once forget all our reserve.
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It is the subdued speech of that false one skilled in many a wily art, that breaketh through all the defences of our womanly decorum.
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I wanted to go away in a huff: but I went and embraced him, for I saw that my heart had already joined him.
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Can they ever think of refusing to be reconciled, whose heart melteth even as fat in the fire?
CXXVII
The Longing of the Lovers to Meet
She
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My eyes have lost their lustre and grown dull, and my fingers have worn away for counting of the days that I have noted on the wall.67
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What if I forget today, my maid? My beauty hath already left me and my bracelet hath slipped off my arm.
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He parted from me longing for conquests: and if I live yet, it is for the longing of his return.
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He gave my company up and parted without any regard to my feelings but yet for the mere thinking of his speedy return my heart swelleth with joy!
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Only let my eyes take their fill of the sight of my beloved: pallor will then no more be seen on my wasted arm.
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Let my spouse but return home: and then in one day I shall drink the nectar of his presence and bid farewell to this wasting disease.
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When the beloved who is dear even as my eyes cometh home, shall I sulk for his long absence? or shall I embrace him? or shall I do both?
He
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May the prince begin the battle at once and triumph! And may I return in the evening and feast at home with my loved one!
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To those who count the days and yearn for the return of the beloved who is away, one single day will creep along with the slowness of seven.
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Of what avail will be my getting back or the meeting or even the hearty embrace, if the heart of my loved one be broken before then?
CXXVIII
Reading the Secret Thought
He
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Thou mayest try to conceal, my love, but thy eye refuseth to be restrained, and telleth me that there is some strange thought in thy breast.68
She Is Silent and He Addresses the Maid
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Ah! More than a woman’s reserve hath my artless one, whose beauty filleth my eyes and whose arms are even as bamboo stems.
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Even as the thread that is seen through the crystal bead, there is a thought that is now passing in her bosom, but which is yet plainly visible.
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Even as the fragrance in the bud that is not yet blown, there is a secret meaning in the half-smile of this artless one.
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The cunning with which she concealed her rising thought and left hath a charm to cure the anguish of my heart.
She Addresses the Maid When Alone
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He is overkind and sweet to me: I fear there is something in his heart which he is hardly able to conceal: and it forebodeth to me a second departure.
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My bracelet hath read the coolness in the heart of my gracious lord even sooner than my own self.
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My beloved parted only yesterday: but it is seven days since my form hath lost its freshness!69
The Maid Addresses Him Alone
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She looked at her bracelet and her tender arm and then she looked at her feet: these are the signs that she made to me.70
He Speaks to the Maid
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She telleth me of the pangs of separation and prayeth for permission to accompany me if I go: how she surpasseth womanhood’s self in delicacy to tell this only with her eyes!
CXXIX
The Impatience of the Pair to Fly to Each Other’s Arms
She
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Rapture at the very thought and delight at the mere seeing belong not to wine: they belong only unto love.
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When love exceedeth even the measure of a palmyra tree, the desire to sulk can never enter the heart even to the extent of a millet seed.
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Though he careth not for me and doth only as he pleaseth, my eyes will not rest unless they behold him.
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I wanted indeed to go away in a huff, my maid: but my heart forgot it and ran after union with the beloved.
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Even as the eye seeth not the blackness of the pencil when it is being painted, even so I see no blemish in my beloved when he is near.
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When he is before me I can see no faults in him: but when I see him not, I can see nothing in him but faults.
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Who will jump into a stream knowing that it hath a treacherous undercurrent that will carry him away? and how should I take to sulking who know that I cannot hold on to it when he
