Jahi_Lyiah

E na busca das amendoeiras longínquas e dos amores esquecidos, reavivados aqui:

MOURNING IN ANDALUSIA

If white is the colour
of mourning in Andalusia,
it is a proper custom.

Look at me,
I dress myself in the white
of white hair
in mourning for youth.


Abu l-Hasan al-Husri (d. 1095)

SLAVE BOY

They shaved his head

to clothe him in ugliness

out of jealousy and fear

of his beauty.

They erased the night

and left him in dawn.

Yusuf ibn Harun al-Ramadi (d. 1022)

LEAVETAKING

On the morning they left

we said goodbye

filled with sadness

for the absence to come.

Inside the palanquins

on the camels' backs

I saw their faces beautiful as moons

behind veils of golden cloth.

Beneath the veils

tears crept like scorpions

over the fragrant roses

of their cheeks.

These scorpions do not harm

the cheek they mark.

They save their sting

for the heart of the sorrowful lover.

Ibn Jakh (11th century)

(translated by Emilio Garcia Gomez & Cola Franzen)