The Wing of Separation

The wing of separation
Bore me away;
The fluttering heart was dismayed
And bore away her senses...
Had she but seen me,
When my soul was intent on speeding the journey by night,
When my sounding steps
Held converse with the demons of the desert--
When I wandered through the waste
In the shadows of night,
While the roar of the lion was heard
From his lair among the reeds--
When the brilliant Pleiades circled,
Like dark-eyed maidens in the green woods;
And the stars were borne round
Like wine-cups,
Filled by a fair maid
And served by a watchful attendant--
When the Milky Way
Was as the gray hairs of age
Upon the head of gloomy night;
And the ardor of my resolution,
And the piercer of darkness
Were equally terrible;
When the eyelids of the stars
Were closed for weariness--
Ah, then she had known
That fate itself obeyed my will
And that I was worthy of the favor of Ibn Aâmir.