Love

Poem : 1211

It came and brought to me, that nightly vision rare,
A message from my love,- what feast shall I prepare?

Explanation :
Where with shall I feast the dream which has brought me my dear one's messenger ?

Poem : 1212

If my dark, carp-like eye will close in sleep, as I implore,
The tale of my long-suffering life I'll tell my loved one o'er.

Explanation :
If my fish-like painted eyes should, at my begging, close in sleep, I could fully relate my sufferings to my lord.

Poem : 1213

Him, who in waking hour no kindness shows,
In dreams I see; and so my lifetime goes!

Explanation :
My life lasts because in my dream I behold him who does not favour me in my waking hours.

Poem : 1214

Some pleasure I enjoy when him who loves not me
In waking hours, the vision searches out and makes me see.

Explanation :
There is pleasure in my dream, because in it I seek and obtain him who does not visit me in my wakefulness.

Poem : 1215

As what I then beheld in waking hour was sweet,
So pleasant dreams in hour of sleep my spirit greet.

Explanation :
I saw him in my waking hours, and then it was pleasant; I see him just now in my dream, and it is (equally) pleasant.

Poem : 1216

And if there were no waking hour, my love
In dreams would never from my side remove.

Explanation :
Were there no such thing as wakefulness, my beloved (who visited me) in my dream would not depart from me.

Poem : 1217

The cruel one, in waking hour, who all ungracious seems,
Why should he thus torment my soul in nightly dreams?

Explanation :
The cruel one who would not favour me in my wakefulness, what right has he to torture me in my dreams?

Poem : 1218

And when I sleep he holds my form embraced;
And when I wake to fill my heart makes haste!

Explanation :
When I am asleep he rests on my shoulders, (but) when I awake he hastens into my soul.

Poem : 1219

In dreams who ne'er their lover's form perceive,
For those in waking hours who show no love will grieve.

Explanation :
They who have no dear ones to behold in their dreams blame him who visits me not in my waking hours.

Poem : 1220

They say, that he in waking hours has left me lone;
In dreams they surely see him not,- these people of the town;

Explanation :
The women of this place say he has forsaken me in my wakefulness. I think they have not seen him visit me in my dreams.