Oh, her beauty--the tender maid! by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi
Oh, her beauty--the tender maid! Its brilliance gives light like lamps to one travelling in the dark.
She is a pearl hidden in a shell of hair as black as jet,
A pearl for which Thought dives and remains unceasingly in the deeps of that ocean.
He who looks upon her deems her to be a gazelle of the sand-hills, because of her shapely neck and the loveliness of her gestures.
- Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165 - 1240)
English version by
Reynold A. Nicholson
from Mystics of Islam
*****
Oh, how beautiful! the tender maid.
A shining lamp for travellers in dark
A pearl hidden in jet black hair
A pearl one desires diving into ocean depths.
Her shapely neck, her lovely gestures tell
She's perhaps a sandy-hill gazelle.
-A rendering by Ravi Kopra
© White Wings., all rights reserved.
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