Shabe Ra Ba Man

Shabe Ra Ba Man — One Night With Me — is a song of a night that lasted and then ended. 'O moon of the early risers' (mah-e sahar-kheezan) is an address that names the beloved as belonging to dawn's time — the beloved rises early, catches the moon at its departure. The night that 'turned to dawn' describes the beloved staying long enough for night to become morning, which is an act of intimacy.

'At dawn, like the sun, you journeyed from my nest' — the departure at dawn is figured as the sun's rising and departure, which suggests both the inevitability of the leaving (the sun must rise, must travel) and the illuminating quality of the presence that left. The nest (ashiana) as the speaker's home is a vulnerable image: nests are built for birds to return to, and the bird has journeyed away.

'Like two charming birds we came close together — alas / My beautiful bird, you flew and left me without wings' — the parallel is precise: both were birds, both came close. Then one flew and the other was left wingless. The speaker who had wings (the capacity for flight, for love's transport) discovers they have none without the other bird. The final couplet's 'one glance overturned the whole of my foundation' is the compressed account of the entire vulnerability: a single look established this entire edifice, and the same measure of attention could destroy it.