Samarra

On a moonless night, in a place of nocturnal confabulation:

He held a conversation, or discourse, by night. He waked, continued awake; he did not sleep. He drank wine.

The cattle pastured by night without a pasture, or dispersed themselves by night.

Verily our camels pastured by night, the whole of its ebony lustre, when your hands held mine beneath the brown sand. We became tawny, brownish, dusky - the color of camels -fast, firm, strong, the beatings of hooves in the night, and a rush of sand against our thighs.

"Sammara", you said, and I asked, "Do you mean me or the camel?", Samarra - swift, excellent, light-footed. Samarra - partner in night-time conversation. Language steals meaning from our kisses.

They passed their night drinking wine.

The cattle pastured upon the herbage, pastured upon herbage by night. He made their milk thin with water. He shot his arrow. He swore by the darkness and by the moon.

"Sammara".

He conversed with him by day. He discoursed with him by night:

Conversation, or discourse, held by night, sipped like tea, curled between your teeth, and your hands are curled over my fingers, which bury into grains finer than the sound of your voice, calling the cattle, lowing, lowing, and a dance I do not understand.

"I will not do it as long as men hold conversation or discourse by nights that shine moonlight on bearded whiskers."

"Sammara."

"As long as the moonless night allows the holding of conversation or discourse in it."

"An unlimited time, or time without end."

But such a one is with, at the abode of forever, always.

The night and the day, (your finger and my thigh), but I will not come to you, ever, while night and day alternate (your body and mine).

The Sammara tree bears small leaves, short thorns, and yellow fruit. Samarra wood covers the houses in the villages of the valley, and once the prince addressed them "Oh people of the Sammara trees", he said, before he blinded his eye with a hot iron. You blinded me with your smile.

He let the camels go, left them to pasture by themselves, by night. Sammara also means to let go of a female slave, and to allow a ship out to sea, as well as daybreak and moonlight. Like a woman, the word has learned to adapt to meanings not its own.

"I will not do it when the moon does not rise nor when it does rise."

"Sammara".

You wrapped me in crimson blankets, and we continued to not sleep. Our lips percussed like the trotting of camels pasturing by night, and our bodies became ships.

On a moonless night, in a place of nocturnal confabulation:

He held a conversation, or discourse, by night. He waked, continued awake; he did not sleep. He drank wine.

The cattle pastured by night without a pasture, or dispersed themselves by night.

Verily our camels pastured by night, the whole of its ebony lustre, when your hands held mine beneath the brown sand. We became tawny, brownish, dusky - the color of camels -fast, firm, strong, the beatings of hooves in the night, and a rush of sand against our thighs.

At a gathering of tale-weavers, in the silence before daybreak, I left them there, engaged in winding conversations.