Wait for me whenever darkness falls,
For night I see contains a secret best.
If the heavens felt this love I feel for you,
The sun would not shine, nor the moon rise,
Nor would the stars launch out upon their journey.


***

Must separation mean we have no way to meet ?
Ay! Lovers all moan about their troubles.
For me it is a winter not a try sting time,
Crouching over the hot coals of desire.
If we're apart, nothing can be otherwise.
How soon just the very thing I feared
Was what my destiny delivered. Night after night
And separation going on and on and on,
Nor does my being patient free me from
The shackles of my longing. Please God
There may be winter rains pelting copiously down
To irrigate the earth where you now dwell.

Had you any respect for the love between us,
You would not choose that slave of mine to love.
From a branch flowering in beauty you turn
To a branch that bears no fruit.
You know lam the moon at full,
But worse luck for me
It's Jupiter you have fallen for.

They'll call you the Hexagon, an epithet
Properly yours even after you drop dead:
Pederast, pimp, adulterer,
Gigolo, cuckold, cheat.

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi

Four Poems to Ibn Zaydun

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi

Women Poets From Before 1500

Four Poems to Ibn Zaydun