1. Do you not know that youthful ardour fails
To restrain lovers' blame and censure?

2. Why are the young downcast when denied
The visit of a loved one from afar?

3. Of what value is passion, however pure,
If no reward comes from the beloved?

4. A visitant who joins with lovers when desire is strong
Is called again whenever the trysting-place allures.

5. She thinks her lover's passion will endure, though he be gone,
While love itself cries: "To the farthest goal!"

6. Once plighted, the fair secrets shared between them
Cannot be broken, though the clans be roused to anger.

7. When travellers love a face, no toil can hold them back;
They care not if their mount go lame upon the road.

8. My wonder-beasts have come from 'Irq in coat of mail,
Champing their bits among them, snorting, stamping hooves.

9. Jealous men, doubting, turn from us and frown askance,
Though spear-thrusts in the dust their rage reproves.

10. What harm if that fair union now were made more fair
With ties of marriage? Better that than we should part.

11. Know you not that we find no peace but in the reddened tents,
Where washing-stone with tents' blood darkened yet may run?

12. Can sweet scent breathe, from bud not blossomed by the rain?
Parching men soak their hair before it can be dressed.

13. How many a rival by his taunts destroyed himself,
Recking no answer, save the readable spear!

14. Nor did it serve us that the litter of the chief should be
A howdah, canopied, and curtained round about;

15. That tents were pitched, their cords made fast; beside the track
Were standing-places built of palms and arched with boughs;

16. Had fortune sworn to me that we should meet by night
Unseen, how had the prowling jackals howled for fright!

17. All night her bracelet rent her wrist, till she became aware
That even amid delights may dwell the pains of hell;

18. From that sly tippler I had turned and walked away
To one whose turban-folds hid nothing, all was plain;

19. Thence had I marched along with swaying camel-litters' swags,
With beauty-spots and cheeks' soft down for pleasant company,

20. One who makes sweet the lip's compress though drink forbid,
For his slow draught is like pure rain-water to taste.

21. Till the dawn glimmered and the horizon showed—behold,
A crow upon the wing flew cawing from night's darkness,

22. And Suhá dipped and all but fell, swerving in her course,
So nearly did the long night's vigil make her faint.

23. As if Al-Thurayyá raised her flag for her cavalry
To make a brave attack, then turned and fled away.

24. As if Suháil stretched his hand forth in the spreading dawn
To take the ransom price for all the stars he lit.

25. As if the Pleiades let fall a cluster of their bloom,
Bending their heads, then straightening up to gaze again.

26. As if the morning met the sun and from his splendour gained
A shooting-star to run before the light of day.

27. Joy to thee, Bin Jihwar; spend thy wealth freely;
When the pure pearl-tears fall, no stopper keeps them back.

28. Deem not the Nile too poor, though meagre be its flood;
Not gifts like thine submit to any count or measure.

29. Thy gifts make enviers praise thee, led by thine example;
Not that they covet them, but by thy fair report.

30. Gentle thy nature is, a meadow where the flowers breathe perfume;
Honey distils, though flies alight, its sweetness to explore.

31. Prince of great deeds, though obstacles oppose thy course,
Yet shalt thou overcome them, or make hardship light.

32. Majestic, from whom men avert their glance for fear
Lest thy rebuke reprove them, thy veil-hidden might.

33. Hadst thou revealed the fullness of thy glorious state,
Men's eyes had been dazzled, and their words amazed.

34. Thou whose attack is as the torrent's overwhelming spate
That sweeps the poor, weak grub before its rush to death.

35. When once thy purpose is resolved, thou wilt not fail
To lift thy trailing skirts, disdaining all delay.

36. Thy firm resolves make enemies avoid thy path,
As warriors dreaded raven-omens in the days of old.

37. True to the mark thy arrows fly, feathers and notch direct,
Not vain their flight, like arrows shot at random into air.

38. Clement, who dost refrain from punishing mad ignorance,
Since clemency for some misdeeds may be the just chastisement;

39. Should once the offender stumble, thy pardon keeps watch,
Thy favours gentle, even to the guilty, their protection.

40. Magnanimous soul, secure in its untarnished faith,
Like water, hating filth, embracing all that's clean.

41. O Banú Jihwar, boast no more of ancestors now gone,
Whose choicest garments are the cobwebs of the tomb!

42. Ye have attained the heights where lofty souls disport;
Plateaus are reached to hear renown and fame's loud trumpets sound.

43. The earth and heavens by you are matched; stars in the sky,
A hundred hands stretched out, each grasping at the clouds!

44. Interpreter of glory's meaning, though glory now has fled;
Who dost befriend the name of praise, though nothing left to praise.

45. Thy friends are come to visit thee, and now the rooms are proud.
Thy visitation is the Book; theirs time misspent in sport.

46. We'd comfort thee for fasting-months now past,
Knowing thou'rt wounded by their going, sorely grieved.

47. 'Twas but a chance if pilgrimage had brought more recompense—
The gain were greater in rewards from God on high.

48. I witness thou hast done what holy law requires;
He knows what pleases God, whose eyes are freed from veils.

49. Thou dwelt beside God's house in fellowship with men
Who feared their Lord and bent their backs in worship low.

50. Fervent thy striving was, and true thy penitence;
Thy works were good; now goodly thy reward shall be.

51. For this thy name on earth forever shall survive,
While in the everlasting home thy place is fair.

52. Good news!—thy feast-days will succeed from year to year
Even as stars proceeding through the months of night.

53. Thou'rt like a pine-tree clad in robes of reverent fear
To gleam before the Seeker's eye in regions blest.

54. Do thou live on and leave behind an heir, for thou
A robe of honour wearest, while others go threadbare.

55. How many a deadly foe poured out abuse, but thou
Didst pardon them, while justice doomed them to the flames!

56. Scorn could not turn thy noble spirit from its course,
Nor change of faith, though adverse to thy principles.

57. Alas, I have no obvious authority over them,
To foil my bitterest foe, should discord grow.

58. Else would my prophethood be marred, and its fair name
Debased, when men expect a prophet to compel.

59. Though the sea's face be clouded o'er by scum,
Day's splendour blotted out by clouds and misty fogs,

60. No cheer so long as sorrow lives in thee,
No comfort got, till steps approach thy door.

61. Best among men! should others fail me, still
Thou remainest; other friends are mirage; thou art Nile!

62. Does the wine-seller limp to left or right
When the spring season spreads its shade o'er all?

63. So where shall praise be found whose fame endures,
Its freshest raiment donned in days gone by?

64. I'll weep to see how I have lost thy grace,
As Rabí'a wept the loss of Tha'lab's love!

65. I'll own to sleepless turning on my bed,
As captives turn, by comradeless night oppressed!

66. Trust thou the flow of verse, forgive mankind;
What are they all but flies circling the bowls?

67. Do not confront me with twin rivals, for
I stand alone, what time the herds in pastures rove.

68. When inspiration I denied, I found
Men barring access, guarding both its gates.

69. Knowledge has given me its diverse, ordered lore,
As planets turn and circle in the sky.

70. Return, thy palm outstretched in truth, its honesty
Proclaimed, while enemies spread nothing but deceit.

71. Never let bitter sorrow for thy pact of faith
Endure; or what is right be hidden from thy sight.

72. Vain now my daydreams and desires of old;
Those hopes are fled that once were fresh and green.

73. Where shall I find the proof and potent means
To foil the bitterest foe armed for the fight?

74. Lest I, in prophet's speech, make anger rise
And mar that noble name held in such esteem.

75. Scum is upon the water's face; the light
By day obscured, enveloped in a fog.

76. Resentment for offence remained, its spark
Still quick to kindle fire between the ribs.

77. They say to me: "Turn east or west a song,
For there men's souls await the eagerly looked-for gift!"

78. But thou art the trenchant blade, the hilt new-graved
With gold, the tempered steel unstained.

79. No sword retains the glimmer of its flash
If it should drop and strike the flinty ground.

80. My wish was fair, yet trouble has defiled
That once was clear, and now spoiled the taste.

81. Those hopes I held, alas! have failed me now;
Those cisterns cracked that should have flowed with wine.

82. Then who will be my refuge, who my aid,
When enemies attack with bitterest hate?

83. Unless some prophet come to me and smite
Opposing clans, crushing them with his might?

84. Scum creeps across the water's shining face;
Day's splendour blotted by a fog's thick veil.

85. Joy gone if absent; and all wealth the bane
Of happiness, unless your cooling shadow fall.

86. Best of all men! If others fail me, still
Thou remainest; other friends are mirage; thou art Nile!

87. Does the wine-seller limp to left or right
When the spring season spreads its shade o'er all?

88. Shall praise then fade, renowned in olden days?
Shall that fair youthful garment now turn old?

89. I'll weep my luck, as one wept long ago
For his lost love when Tha'lab's camels strayed!

90. I'll mourn the comradeless repose of night,
As captives mourn the loss of those who shared their chains.

91. Trust thou the flow of verse, forgive mankind;
What are they all but flies circling the bowls?

92. Do not confront me with twin rivals, for
I stand alone, what time the herds in pastures rove.

93. When inspiration I denied, I found
Men barring access, guarding both its gates.