By Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali bin Hisn (eleventh century). The poem was translated from the Arabic by Peter Cole and appears in Hymns & Qualms, a selection of his poems and translations that was published in May by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Cole is the author of four previous volumes of poetry.

Nothing has taken me
         more by surprise —
                            that dove, cooing
                         …