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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 10/03/2021
  • 145 Words
  • 508 Views
  • 4 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 17. ...Among gazelles and soft antelope...

.

Tears revealed my secret to the river,

where beauty leaves its mark:

where gardens cover the watercourse

and where the river flashes in the middle of gardens.

Among gazelles and soft antelope –

my mind belongs to her, she rules my heart.

Something makes her eyes heavy from sleeping,

and that something prevents me from sleeping too.

When she pours the splendor of her hair over herself,

you see the moon in the pitch-black night,

as if a friend had died at dawn,

as if dressed in mourning.

—Hamda Bint Ziyad al-Mu´addib,[i]

circa 995

 

 

[Lyssa]

 

 

 

[i] “Tears revealed my secret to the river” Hamda Bint Ziyad al-Mu´addib https://bazar-andalus.de/poesie/poesie-und-eros-in-al-andalus/

The line "Among gazelles and soft antelope" actually means "Among beautiful young men available for pleasure"

_
as noted
  • Love 3
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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AC Benus
1 hour ago, Parker Owens said:

The first line completely hooked me. 

I'm always struck by the complexity of the the beloved's black hair and references to the moon. BTW, this poem is more from the trove of treasures from Moorish Spain. Interestingly, Hamda is among the oldest poets recorded from this era, and was not Muslim, but part of the Jewish Community. There is an entire sub-set of Jewish poets in Spain who wrote in both Hebrew and Arabic, and translated poems from others into their communities' native tongue. And many, if not all, were part of the LGBT Community as well. 

All thanks are due to @Lyssa for introducing me to this subset which I may not have encountered on my own :)  

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