ظَمِئْتُ إِلَى لَمَاكِ فَهَلْ لِظَامٍرَوَاءٌ مِنْ سُلَافِكِ وَالْمُدَامِ
لِأَحْسُوَ مِنْ عَتِيقِ خُمُورِ عِشْقٍعَلَى شَفَتَيْكِ تُبْلِغُنِي مَرَامِي
I Thirst
- I thirst for your dusky lips1: is there a draught for one who thirsts
from your first-running wine and from your long-kept store2, - that I may sip love's aged wines upon your lips,
wines that will bring me all I'm longing for?
Notes
- Lamā is the dark, dusky tint of the lips, prized as a mark of beauty in classical Arabic poetry, and by extension the lips themselves. ↩
- Sulāf is the first-running wine, the purest that flows from the grapes before pressing; mudām is wine kept long in the jar, the 'long-kept store'. Likening the beloved's kisses to wine is a stock figure of Arabic love poetry, and 'aged' in the next verse extends it: the love on her lips is old and matured, like the finest vintage. ↩
English translation prepared by artificial intelligence and reviewed against the Arabic for accuracy of meaning and rhetoric.