Hashish Poem
Swear off wine and drink from the cup of Haydar,
amber–scented, smarigdite green.
Look: it is offered to you
by a slender Turkish gazelle who
sways delicate as a willow bough.
As he prepares it, you might
compare it to the traces of
fine down on a blushing cheek
since even the slightest breeze
makes it move as if in the
coolness of a drunken morning when
silvery pigeons might whisper in
branches filling its vegetal soul with
their mutual emotions.
How many meanings it has,
significances unknown to wine!
So close your ears
to the Old Censor’s slander!—attributed to Ibn Khamis, 13th century Spain, or Ibn al–A’ma, 12th century Egypt/Syria
(Yes, I am building to something here.)
