Farewell
***********

Leave me, my love, it's time to part
This paradise is not my portion.
I had to cross a bridge of flame whenever
I visited this land of bliss.
Yet I've been your life-long companion
Since earliest youth and your tender years.
But now I come like a transient guest,
And go away like a bird of passage.

Has anyone drunken with love like us,
Seen love like we have seen it?
We built a thousand castles on our way,
Walked together on a moon-drenched road,
Where Joy danced and leapt before us,
We gazed at the stars that fell, and we possessed
And we laughed like two children together, then
Ran and raced with our shadows.
After this nectar's sweetness we awoke-
How, I wished it had never been so!
Night's dreams had vanished, the night was ended
The night that used to be our friend.
The light of morning was an ominous herald;
Dawn loomed up like a wall of fire.

--By Ibrahim Naji--