Fad Galbeed Passing Cloud

Setting sun

You're on the run:

Late afternoon

And gone so soon!

What are you scared of? What's the rush?

Is it the spears of light that shine

Back at you from rock and bush?

Is it the dark creeping up on you

Or bad news from the depths of night

That makes you want to hide your light?

Or is it this girl, more beautiful

Than rain in the season of drought, whose grace

Is greater by far than the subtle pace

Of a passing cloud when it's nudged by the wind?

When you and she exchanged glances just now,

It was you who grew pale, it was you who shrank

From the gleam in her eye and the glow of her smile.

Setting sun

You're on the run:

Late afternoon

And gone so soon!

Have you gone

To warn the moon

That she must face

This greater grace?

The roll of the clouds, the furl of the waves -

A sea of cloud stained purple and red,

The swing of her arms, the swing and the sway

Of her hips as she walks is just like the way

You sway and dip and the end of the day.

Now the clouds turn their backs on you.

They only have eyes for the eyes of the girl:

Eyes that launch love-darts, darts that sink

Into the flanks of the clouds and draw

Droplets of blood that stain the sky.

Setting sun

You're on the run:

Late afternoon

And gone so soon…

These are the lines

That seemed to fall

To hand when first

I saw the girl.

Now this is what

I most recall:

The way she reached up to gather fruit

Believing herself to be alone

Until she saw me there, wide-eyed,

As the wind read my mind and sent a gust

To part her dress and lay her breast

Bare for the space of an indrawn breath.

Ah, yes, I remember that…and the way

She caught at the cloth and fastened it,

Turning her face from mine, her eyes

Lowered, as if to say: No man

Has seen before what you saw today.

 

Oh setting sunlight

who slips away

in the dwindling light of late afternoon

and goes in to the hole,

Hey are you a coward?

What is the hurry/rush? [the word here refers to a horse running on its own]

 

Is it the coming and going(?)

of the little spears which shine

[or] an ambusher in front of you and

news, sent to you from the house you would spend the night in,

which has burnt you?

 

Or [is it] this girl which looks like the head of a raining cloud,

the gu' season--which lifted the shawl--

an afternoon cumulus cloud.

When you glanced at each other in the afternoon

your bulb [i.e. glow] weakened / shrank;

and is the retreat out of fear? [i.e. a fear that the beauty of the girl is greater]

 

Or is it disappointment

and you saying to yourself “Inform the moon which would [otherwise] miss out [on being able to deal with the greater beauty]” before it's time [for it to rise], of what you faced in the afternoon [galabta!!]

 

The turning over of the waves

with the graceful arm movement of a beautiful woman,

the slow march of the gracefully swinging arms

to which elegance is special, [i.e. elegance is particular to this movement]

your sides (goonyo) which swayed

and the ranks of the clouds

which are all around you

and which you hit on the chest with the bullets you let loose and the well aimed arrows

and which turned red

with drops of blood and

the multicoloured cloud (cirrus?)

which was dyed on the surface;

what reduced their “Shoulder arms!” today? [i.e. what reduced the honour of the clouds around the setting sun which normally reflect the glory of the sun; here they're likened to an army the sun commands; the references to the bullets and arrows seem a little incongruous, but anything goes in poetry]

Did they go on strike / grieve for you [giriif = shoobbare but English!]

 

Or was what stopped them

the prestige of Gobaad [name given to the girl]

and the missiles of love;

the love which is a kernel

which her eyes are launching

 

Afartaa siddiri gam [These two lines are a dhextaal 45 would paraphrase as something like 'be that as it may'.

What I still recall:

 

is that one(fem.) [i.e. that girl]

with a loosely tied dress and light overcloth [gareys]

gathering ripe fruit,

who was not expecting to see a male, [lit. someone eligible to marry her]

whom the wind, which was stirred up

and which understood my belly-insides, [i.e. my feelings]

suddenly took

such that it revealed the [i.e. her] side, front and chest;

And [I remember] the tying/fastening of the cloth

which she quickly covered herself with

and the modest dodging / backing away,

the animal head which she hung down,

the shyness of virginity.