Sol 6.1

  1. وجدي كوجدكَ بالظباءِ الغيدِ

    فإليكَ من عذلي ومن تفنيدي

    My longing is like yours for the graceful gazelles.

    So spare me your reproaches and your charges of folly.

  2. إيهاً ملامكَ إنَّ بين جوانحي

    ناراً من البرحاءِ ذاتَ وقود

    Enough of your blame! Between my ribs there burns

    a fire of torment, well supplied with fuel.

  3. وإما وسبِ العامريّة إنّهُ

    زهر الكواكب في الليالي السّود

    And ... al-ʿĀmiriyya [wording unclear]; indeed, it is

    the brightest stars in the black nights.

  4. يسفرن سودَ نواظرٍ وغدائرٍ

    ويلحنَ بيضَ ترائبٍ وخدود

    They unveil dark eyes and tresses,

    and gleam with white upper breasts and cheeks.

  5. يفحصنَ أغصانَ النّقا بروادفٍ

    كصبابتي جلّت ولينِ قدود

    They stir the dune-grown boughs with haunches

    vast as my longing, and with supple figures.

  6. فأليّةً ما البانُ ليس بمثمرٍ

    كغصون بانٍ أثمرتْ بنهود

    I swear: the fruitless bān tree is not

    like bān boughs that bear breasts as fruit.

  7. بوجنتي ذاتِ النّصيف وقلبها

    معنى زلال الماءِ والجلمود

    In the cheeks of the veiled one, and in her heart,

    lie the natures of limpid water and solid rock.

  8. كالظّبي لا في ردفها وقوامها

    بل لحظها ونفارها والجيد

    Like a gazelle—not in her haunches or her stature,

    but in her glance, her startled flight, and her neck.

  9. أختُ السّلافةِ ريقةً ممنوعةً

    وقوام غصنِ البانةِ الأُملود

    Sister to choice wine in her forbidden saliva,

    and to a supple bān bough in her stature.

  10. في جفن مقلتها وجفنُ محبّها

    ما شئتَ من سنةٍ ومن تسهيد

    In her eye's lid and in her lover's eyelid

    lies all you could wish of drowsiness and sleeplessness.

  11. وسديدُ رمح القدِّ ينجدُ قومهُ

    في حيث نبتُ الخطِّ غيرُ سديد

    The straight spear of his stature aids his people

    where al-Khaṭṭ's spear-shafts fail to strike true.

  12. في كلِّ يومٍ من وقائع حسنهِ

    يغزو التجلّدَ منهُ جيشُ صدود

    On every day of his beauty's battles,

    an army of his disdain assails endurance.

  13. وإذا تخاذلتِ السيوفُ لدى الوغى

    هتفوا بسيف لحاظهِ المغمود

    When swords falter in the tumult of battle,

    they cry for the sheathed sword of his glances.

  14. لو كنتَ مدّرعاً بلامِ عذارهِ

    لذممتَ ما صنعتْ يدا داود

    Had you been armored in the mail of his cheek-down,

    you would have scorned what David's two hands made.

  15. يكسو التّلاع بمثلها من وشيهِ

    والعامُ سبطُ النبتِ لدنُ العود

    He clothes the slopes with its likeness from his brocade,

    while the year is lush in growth and supple in branch.

  16. ويهزّهُ شرخُ الشباب كذابلٍ

    هزّتهُ راحةُ باسلٍ صنديد

    Youth's first bloom sways him like a slender spear

    shaken by the palm of a fearless champion.

  17. من لي بهِ وبفتيةٍ جمعتهم

    عرصاتُ جلّقَ في ذرى مسعود

    Who will reunite me with him and the young men gathered

    by Jilliq's courts, in Masʿūd's lofty abode?

  18. قومٌ إذا زخرتْ علومُ صدورهم

    فهي البحارُ طوافحاً في البيد

    Men whose learning, when it swells within their breasts,

    becomes seas overflowing through the deserts.

  19. من جودهِ في الغاديات مخائلٌ

    ومن الخلائق في ابنة العنقود

    In morning rainclouds are signs of his generosity,

    and in the grape-cluster's daughter, signs of his character.

  20. ذي الطعنة النجلاءِ يحمدُ صنعها

    يومَ الوغى والضّربةِ الأخدود

    Wielder of the gaping thrust, whose work is praised

    on battle-day, and of the furrow-deep blow;

  21. والعاقرِ الكومَ العشار تكوسُ

    فعلةَ مبدىءٍ للمكرماتِ معيد

    and hamstringer of high-humped, full-term she-camels as they stumble,

    doing the deed of one who begins noble acts and repeats them.

  22. وابن السودِ الحمس كلّ مصاحبٍ

    قلباً حديداً في ثياب حديد

    And son of dark, intrepid warriors, each bearing

    an iron heart within garments of iron.

  23. يمشون في الّلام المضاعفِ نسجهُ

    مشيَ القنا في نحر كلّ عنيد

    They march in mail whose weave is doubled,

    as spears pass into every stubborn foe's throat.

  24. نامي اليدِ البيضاء داجي الهبوة

    السوداءِ فيّاض النّدى المودود

    His white hand ever flourishing, his dust-cloud dark,

    black; overflowing with bounty, beloved.

  25. وإذا ارتدوا غُدر العياب وجرّدوا

    مثلَ الجداول من حياضِ غمود

    When they don the storage-chests' pools and draw

    stream-like blades from the basins of sheaths,

  26. وتبادروا لدنَ الوشيج مثَقفاً

    والخيلَ ماعجةً بكلّ مجيد

    and hasten to supple, straightened spear-shafts,

    and to horses wheeling with every masterful rider,

  27. فالأفق تجلوه نجومُ أسنّةٍ

    والأرضُ تُجلى في لياتلٍ سود

    then stars of spearheads brighten the horizon,

    and the earth is unveiled in black nights,

  28. حيثُ البوارقُ في اكفِّ سحائبٍ

    وكواسرُ العقبانِ تحتَ اُسود

    where lightning flashes in the palms of clouds,

    and swooping eagles are beneath lions.

  29. عزماته علويةٌ وهمومهُ

    أنريّةُ التصويت والتصعيد

    His resolves are like ʿAlī's, and his aspirations

    like Anur's in their voice and ascent.

  30. القلّبيُّ الحوّليُّ وقلبهُ

    حالٍ بخوفَ الله والتوحيد

    He is resourceful and adaptable, and his heart

    is adorned with fear of God and faith in His oneness.

  31. فسقى منازلها فتاجَ قطينها

    وطفاءُ مثلُ سماحه المعهود

    May her dwellings, and the crown of their inhabitants, be watered

    by a dense raincloud, like his well-known generosity,

  32. من كلِّ ساريةٍ مرتها كفّهُ

    مشكورةٍ بلسانِ كلِّ صعيد

    from every night-cloud his hand has milked,

    thanked by the tongue of every tract of earth.

  33. فضلَ الأكارمَ في جلالةِ قدرهم

    بإباءِ آباءٍ وجدِّ جدود

    He surpassed the noble, lofty though their rank,

    through his fathers' pride and his forefathers' glory.

  34. ملكُ العلومِ الغرِّ سيّدُ كندةٍ

    في كلّ يوم مقالةٍ مشهود

    King of illustrious learning, lord of Kinda,

    seen on every day of discourse.

  35. من باسمهِ أضحى عبيدُ بقبضتي

    عبداً وراح لبيدُ أيَّ بليد

    He through whose name ʿUbayd became, in my grasp,

    a slave, and Labīd proved an utter dullard.

  36. لم يخلُ ناديهِ على طولِ المدى

    من منّةٍ تحيي ومالٍ يودي

    His gathering has never lacked, throughout all time,

    life-giving favors and wealth that is spent away.

  37. ولقد ذكرتهمُ وأعناق الفلا

    يشفقنَ من عنقٍ بها ووخيد

    And indeed I recalled them, while the necks of the deserts

    feared a brisk pace and swift trot across them.

  38. فطويتُ أثناءَ الضّلوع على جوّى

    باقٍ وأنّةِ مكمدٍ مفؤود

    So I closed the folds of my ribs around an anguish

    that endures, and the groan of one grief-stricken, heartsore.

  39. قد كنتُ أجني العيش أخضرَ يانعاً

    وأرودُ في عذبِ المذاقِ برود

    Once I plucked life green and ripe,

    and roamed through what was sweet to taste and cool.

  40. فعرفتُ قدر القربِ في حال النّوى

    كالصّابِ بعد الأري والقنديد

    Then, in separation, I learned the worth of nearness,

    like bitter sap after honey and wine.