Perturbation At Dawn

Day comes.... And when she sees the withering of the violet garden And the saffron garden flowering, The stars escaping on their black horse And dawn on her white horse arriving, She is afraid. Against the sighing of her frightened breasts She puts her hand; I see what I have never seen, Five perfect lines on a crystal leaf Written with coral pens. From the Arabic of Ebn Maatuk (seventeenth century).