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With my life I will ransom the mole, on the cheek of the loveling that is; For how should I ransom it else with treasure or aught but my soul?
And blesséd for ever be He who fashioned his cheek without hair And made, of His power and His might, all beauty to dwell in yon mole!
Then he pointed to another and kissing his lips, repeated these verses:
There’s a loveling hath a mole upon his cheek, As ’twere musk on virgin camphor, so to speak.
My eyes marvel when they see it. Quoth the mole, “Heaven’s blessing on the Prophet look ye seek!”[1]
Then he pointed to the third and repeated the following verses, after kissing him half a score times:
All in a silver cup he melted gold full fine, A youth whose hands were dyed in ruby-coloured wine,
And with the skinkers went and handed round one cup Of wine, whilst other two were proffered by his eyne.
Fairer than all the Turks, an antelope, whose waist Together would attract the mountains of Hunain.[2]
An if I were content with crooked[3] womankind, Betwixt attractions twain would be this heart of mine.
One love towards Diyarbeker[4] drawing it, and one That draws it, otherguise, to the land of Jamiaïn.[5]
Now each of the youths had drunk two cups, and when it came to Abou Nuwas’s turn, he took the goblet and repeated these verses:
Drink not of wine except it be at the hands of a loveling slim, Who in brightness of soul resembles it and it resembles him.
The drinker of wine, in very truth, hath no delight thereof, Except the cheek of the fair be pure, who doth the goblet brim.
- ↑ i.e. Do not express admiration openly, lest it attract the evil eye, but vent your wonder by saying, “God bless and preserve the Prophet!” according to general Muslim wont.
- ↑ A gorge near Mecca, the scene of one of Mohammed’s battles.
- ↑ i.e. as made out of a crooked rib, according to the tradition.
- ↑ i.e. the land of the virgin.
- ↑ The word Jamiaïn means “two congregational mosques,” which would only be found in a large town like Baghdad. It is possible, therefore, that the expression, “land of Jamiaïn,” may mean Baghdad or some other great city, noted for its debauched manners.
