Love-Timid

Even now the night's intoxication has not passed, eyes filled with passion; the string of ?iuli-flowers in the parting of my hair has wilted, the world is overwhelmed with scent. I have kept the window-shutters open, extinguishing my lamp - so the dew may enter and cool the fearful outcry of my heart! Dream's intoxication in my eyes, in my breast a message of hope - the distant woodland song, birds' twittering will enter here I know. Rising with a sudden start I see: my heart's monarch, leaning in silence against my thigh - bedecked with flowers. He has bestowed heaven on my heated thirst; my weak and timid heart has trembled, pounding full of love. [Translated by Carolyne Wright with Ayesha Kabir]