Misbah al-Diwan Adab

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan, 2004

AT DAWN

At dawn, when flowers open and the breeze, smelling of ambergris, blows,
How marvelous it is to get a goblet from the graceful beloved!

How marvelous it is to meet secretly, with the beloved face to face,
The singer and the cupbearer on one side, and she, with a brow bright as
the moon, on another.

To hear, once, the harp and the lute and the sound of the flask,
And another time, to pick flowers from the beloved's rose bed!

I long for the last night, when I was with my beloved, only the two of
us,
We spent the time until dawn in pleasure and entertainment.

From time to time we embraced and kissed each other,
I put my hands on her breast, picking flowers and buds.

I was viewing two oranges in the garden of her breast
And in the rose bed of her beauty I was looking at the jasmine.

Sighing for a glance of your two sleepy daffodils
My heart has fallen, sweetheart! like your ringlet

The heart is in the jail of sorrows,
Send a single hair of you, so that it can be released!

My heart, like a child, wanted the candy of your lips
Last night, it was not quiet and still until the daybreak!

Translated by Farhad Shakely