from Ibn al-`Arabi, Turjuman selections, translated by Michael Sells

Poem #33
In a Tangle of Sorrows
translated 1-8 June, 1 December 2003

I answer back the voice on a branch
in a tangle with sorrows of every kind

She mourns her mate tearlessly.
Tears well and flow down my eyes.

I ask as my drowning eyes reveal
the wreckage of my mind what news

Do you have of the one I love? Are they
Sheltered midday in the branches' shade?

and old alternative: (1-8 June, 1 December 03)

I speak to a dove on a branch
in a thicket cooing
thick with sorrow.

As she mourns without tears
the one she lost,
streams of sadness flow
down my eyes.

I say (my eyelids
flowing tears speaking
my condition)--

Do you know of the one I love?
Do they rest from the noon sun
sheltered in the bower's shade?