Sol 6.1

  1. أرته اللّيالي كلَّ مستقبلٍ ذاهب

    وأعلَمنه أنّ النوى للنوى صاحِب

    The nights showed him that everything to come will pass away,

    and taught him that parting is a companion to parting.

  2. أخا رفقةٍ يختصُّ منهم بفرقةٍ

    وصاحب ركبٍ همه منهُم راكِب

    A companion of fellow travelers, singled out from them for separation,

    and a comrade of a caravan, his grief a rider among them.

  3. وقالوا عتابٌ في الهَوى كلّ من أرى

    من الناسِ مشغوفٌ بكم فمِن العاتِب

    They said, 'Reproach in love.' Everyone I see

    among people is enamored of you—so who is the reproacher?

  4. ولكنّه ذكرٌ يُهيّجُ لوعةً

    كما يفعل الباكي إذا سمعَ النادِب

    Yet it is remembrance that stirs a burning grief,

    as a weeper does when he hears a mourner.

  5. وغانيةٍ لا توجب الحبَّ حرمةً

    عليها ولو كانت كما وجبَ الواجِب

    And a beauty who grants love no sacred claim

    upon her, even if that claim were as binding as any duty.

  6. أرى رميَ جفنيها من الضعف ناقصاً

    فيُطمِعُني حتى أحسّ به صائِب

    I see her eyelids' shots falling short through weakness,

    so it tempts me, until I feel it strike true.

  7. أتتني بأخرى مثلِها في زجاجةٍ

    فقلتُ اصرِفيها أنتِ أسوغُ للشارِب

    She brought me another like herself in a bottle,

    so I said, 'Send her away; you are more palatable to the drinker.'

  8. على أنَّ وجه الصومِ قد صدَّ عنكما

    فقالت تعالوا وانظروا الزاهد الراغِب

    Though fasting's face has kept me away from you both,

    she said, 'Come and look at the yearning ascetic!'

  9. وجدتُ بمضنونٍ لها فكأنَّني

    عليُّ بنُ عبد الدائِم بن أبي التائِب

    And I freely gave her something treasured, as though I were

    Ali ibn Abd al-Da'im ibn Abi al-Ta'ib.

  10. أبو كلِّ عافٍ قبلَ شدِّ إزاره

    وإن أبا طفلاً لمِن أعجب العاجِب

    Father to every supplicant before he had tied his waistcloth,

    and a father while still a child is surely among the strangest marvels.

  11. ألستَ تراه كلما حل جانباً

    من الأرضِ حلّ الجودُ في ذلك الجانِب

    Do you not see him? Whenever he settles in a region

    of the earth, generosity settles in that region.

  12. فتىً لينه للطالبين وبِشره

    فخُيِّل في أوهامِهم أنَّه الطالِب

    A youth, so gentle and cheerful toward petitioners

    that in their minds he seems to be the petitioner.

  13. متى تلقَه ما بينَهم تلقَ واحداً

    من الناسِ يخفي عنهمُ أنه الواهِب

    Whenever you meet him in their midst, you meet one

    of the people, concealing from them that he is the giver.

  14. ويبسمُ عن برقٍ فينشو بكَفِّه

    سحابٌ له ذيلُ يمرُّ به ساحِب

    And he smiles, revealing lightning; in his palm rises

    a cloud with a train it drags along as it passes.

  15. إذا لم يكن يَبقى على المرءِ بعدَه

    من المال إلا الذكرُ فالمتلف الكاسِب

    If nothing remains for a man after he is gone

    of his wealth but remembrance, then the spender is the gainer.

  16. له نَظراتٌ في الأمور تسابقَت

    بكلِّ شهابٍ من عَزائِمه ثاقِب

    He has insights into affairs that vie in speed

    with every piercing meteor of his firm resolves.

  17. وهمّ بِما نابَ البعيدَ كأنَّه

    من الناسِ مأخوذٌ بما صَنع الغائِب

    And he worries over what befalls the distant, as though he

    were, among people, held to account for what the absent one has done.

  18. مناقبُ ألقاها عليَّ عطاؤه

    فقلت انتظِرني ألتمس عاقداً حاسِب

    His bounty has laid noble deeds upon me,

    so I said, 'Wait for me while I seek a reckoner who counts on his fingers.'

  19. إذا الجودُ لم يَعجَز عجزتُ بشكره

    وقابلتُه بالمطل والموعِد الكاذِب

    If generosity has not fallen short, I have fallen short in thanking him,

    and repaid him with delay and a false promise.