Sol 5.6

  1. By my life, longing has attained all it desired,

    and exacted its desire from the lover’s very soul.

  2. So let his reproacher leave him to his passion:

    though he has strayed, he takes error for right guidance.

  3. Rapture sends to his eyelids

    its messengers of tears, in pairs and one by one.

  4. He sheds no tear except when

    the fire of inward anguish blazes fiercely within him.

  5. You have denied my eyes the sweetness of sleep;

    they are therefore justified in shunning slumber.

  6. You even withheld the phantom of a nighttime visitor—

    had it drawn near, I would not have spent the night lamenting its distance.

  7. Be as withholding as you please;

    my eyes have always been lavish with tears.

  8. O those I love, why do you not honor for me

    the covenant of love, when I faithfully honor you with affection?

  9. For your sake, the lover has exhausted his patience,

    though he does not fear that his tears will ever run dry.

  10. With all the anguish I endure,

    I doubt that passion will leave me any heart at all.

  11. May the rain water love’s remembered age at a dwelling

    that I spent the night watering with the rain of my ever-returning tears.

  12. At what campsite did the caravan halt,

    remembering there Salma and Su‘ad?

  13. It wept over the traces of a vanished dwelling—

    how beautifully and abundantly the rain wept over them!

  14. There the enamored man pauses awhile,

    drenching both sword-belt and baldric with tears.

  15. No earnest counselor ever urged him concerning it

    without erring in judgment and endeavor alike.

  16. Remembering at the campsite the days of love—

    who can bring back your days there?

  17. Where are your flocks of gazelles? Whenever they appeared,

    they baffled the hunter—unless it was he who became their prey.

  18. Whenever they looked or swayed past,

    they taught you what white blades and tall brown spears are.

  19. How many a dark forelock upon a radiant brow—

    as though night had cast its blackness over dawn—

  20. and how many a figure for which the willow dances,

    then bends and sways, admiring that form!

  21. Ah, for a deadly beauty whose glances strike

    like an arrow that pierces the heart!

  22. Do not hold his gaze accountable for my blood;

    love’s slain one refuses to be ransomed.

  23. I have tested time in union and estrangement,

    and entered love at both its flood and its scantest pool.

  24. In union I came to wish for estrangement,

    and chose distance over nearness.

  25. Whoever mingles with people comes to know the world,

    gaining knowledge among them and imparting it.

  26. When a man has tested people thoroughly,

    he renounces them and tires of finding fault.

  27. Tell whoever hopes that Ali might

    be rivaled in lofty deeds or matched in pace:

  28. whenever their hands strike sparks

    from a firesteel, his steel yields the brightest flame.

  29. The star is far beyond its seeker,

    and it is impossible even to aspire to him.

  30. An eminence inherent in his very being—

    does he seek it newly won, or inherited from of old?

  31. The moon of the assembly: when you call to him—

    how excellent the company, both answerer and one addressed!

  32. In calamity, you hope that he will lessen it;

    from his bounty, you seek only further increase.

  33. They are oceans of generosity, and every one of them

    may surpass the sea and overflow beyond it.

  34. They contended with Glory, and she yielded to them

    the day they led her like a noble mare from among the horses.

  35. Though they were gentle, with hearts humbled in devotion,

    they were unyielding against unbelief.

  36. They turned away from the fleeting goods of this world, and

    were provisioned with no viaticum but piety for God’s sake.

  37. Lords of the world and beacons of guidance,

    the noblest of creation as servants before God.

  38. The Household’s distinction is glory enough,

    and enough for the house of Glory that he became its pillar.

  39. A lord among their illustrious sons,

    who raised the structures of their glory and rose supreme.

  40. A benefactor, exultant in his benefactions,

    and whenever you increase your thanks, he increases his gifts.

  41. O Abu Salman, lord of munificence

    and shining acts of kindness—how freely he gives!

  42. You led the most ungovernable heights of glory;

    they refused submission to any loftiness but yours.

  43. Many a proud, uplifted nose you humbled,

    until its fire against you turned to ash.

  44. You have harvested honor, fresh and ripe,

    while your maligner went off stripping thorns from the tragacanth.

  45. Truth has barred the enemy’s lies;

    when they spread them, they do so only from obstinacy.

  46. Through it, God has tied tongues

    that only yesterday were sharp in uttering falsehood.

  47. I cannot render all the praise I owe you,

    even if I were to make the sea my ink.

  48. I am one who hopes for your kindness

    forever, even when he has died and perished.

  49. I have filled the earth with poems praising you,

    and they have traveled through it, surveying every land.

  50. Whenever a reciter declaims them,

    they enrapture both humankind and lifeless stone.

  51. I truly delight in praising you

    in conversation, even when my praise is repeated.

  52. And whenever I fall into poverty, I feel certain of wealth,

    trusting and relying upon your generosity.

Sol 5.6