دعي لي الورد ألثمه

Notes

1. The verse rests on a pun that English cannot keep: al-ward (with a) is ‘the rose’, and al-wird (with i) is ‘the watering place’, the water one comes down to drink. The rose, with its scent and dew, is the beloved’s cheek; the spring from which he sips to cool his burning is her mouth. ↩
2. Longing becomes a steed. His own yearning is a wild horseman (fāris ʿarim, fierce and hard to restrain), and he asks her to saddle for him a mount of her own longing, burning like his, so that the two may ride together. The chase and battle that follow are a figure for love’s encounter. ↩
3. Ḍabḥan, ‘panting’, is the sound of horses’ breath at full gallop. It echoes the opening of Qurʾan 100:1, wa-l-ʿādiyāti ḍabḥā, ‘By the chargers that run, panting’. ↩
4. Al-ṣāfināt are thoroughbred horses, so called because they stand resting on three legs with the tip of the fourth hoof raised. The word comes from Qurʾan 38:31, al-ṣāfinātu al-jiyād, the fine steeds shown to Solomon. Ablā, rendered ‘has proved its mettle’, is the word used of a warrior who has fought bravely and proved himself in battle. ↩