Sol 5.6

  1. Renew our revelry—for revelry is most praiseworthy;

    pass it round: gold in a silver cup.

  2. Give me that ancient wine to drink,

    telling of what passed in that bygone age.

  3. Had Khosrow seen the radiance of its lights,

    he would have thought it the fire worshipped among the Persians.

  4. From the bubbles of its mingling it donned

    the crown of Alexander, Lord of the Two Horns and the Barrier.

  5. So give me today repeated draughts of wine,

    and bring it back for me tomorrow, my boon companion.

  6. It is ancient, yet in drinking it we find

    each day a joy renewed.

  7. In gardens where the morning breeze played

    and divulged the secret fragrance of wormwood and myrtle,

  8. the garden took on its adornment after

    the clouds had woven it garments fit for maidens.

  9. The dew scattered pearls upon it—

    what are strung gems beside its pearls?

  10. I fancy the raindrops upon its flowers

    are tears flowing from the eye across the cheek.

  11. Its branches bent, swaying gracefully;

    like a drunken reveler in rapture, they began to undulate.

  12. My eyes had their fill of wonder at it,

    and at the turtledove when it sang and trilled.

  13. Here are its branches: they have drunk—

    why, then, do the birds carouse among the boughs?

  14. It is the season of roses; no season

    for revelry delights me but the season of roses.

  15. Its days pass away in happiness,

    safe in God's keeping from heat and cold.

  16. So seize it as an opportunity while you can,

    before it departs, my friend, and is lost—

  17. amid a singer who delights the soul,

    singing, and a beauty swaying gracefully.

  18. How delicious is the wine a man is given to drink

    from the hands of a beardless cupbearer with an unblemished cheek!

  19. His face puts the moons to shame in beauty,

    and that figure shames the soft willow boughs in suppleness.

  20. Lofty spears and precious perfumes trace

    their lineage to him: his stature and his scent.

  21. Have you seen the magic of which they speak?

    It has gone to seek support in his two eyes.

  22. Verses of beauty were revealed in him;

    the lover believed in them and never apostatized.

  23. None but a deliberate assailant shot my heart—

    my slayer, intent upon killing me.

  24. In play he takes souls from their owners;

    what, then, would you say if he grew earnest?

  25. Generous with his life, withholding it not

    from a sleepless lover whose eyes are wet with tears,

  26. he does not taint union with rejection—and oh,

    how many a beloved does not taint union with rebuff!

  27. May my father ransom the graceful youth! He mixes it not

    from his lips with anything but cool sweetness.

  28. Yet in my entrails, from longing for

    that cool-mouthed one, a fire blazes.

  29. How lovely is life with those whom you have chosen,

    with separation nowhere seen and the company never scattered,

  30. beneath the twin shades of the two masters of my bondage, none

    other than Mahmud and Muhammad—

  31. the two noble men who have devoted themselves

    to gracious deeds and undying renown;

  32. the two glorious men, each of them

    pure in nature, noble in root and ancestry;

  33. the two generous men—the downpour of rain is nothing beside them,

    though it flash lightning and thunder with generosity;

  34. the two companions—I can almost see them

    having reached the utmost height of glory and lordship.

  35. If through them I vie in pride with others,

    then indeed I boast of the freeborn over the base.

  36. They were created for virtue and embraced it gladly,

    unlike one forced into a habit until it becomes his custom.

  37. These two have ever remained

    to lofty deeds as hand and forearm.

  38. Contemplate them: which one is that—

    rather, they are the Khattī spear and the Indian-forged sword.

  39. If they have invested me with a favor,

    how excellent the adornment I wear in it!

  40. They joined my bond and raised my pride,

    and one like me may build lofty pride upon them.

  41. Thus should the sons of high lineage be:

    sons following in the footsteps of father and grandfather.

  42. The lion cub comes only from the lion;

    the noble lion never begets anything but a noble lion—

  43. from a father in whom glory itself takes pride:

    when he shoots, he strikes dead; when he aids, he brings good fortune.

  44. He is a sea without a shore,

    and a keen sword whose limit we have never found;

  45. a valiant lion whose claw is the brown

    spear and the unsheathed, sharp-edged sword.

  46. He is my lord: when I appeal to his compassion,

    he shows a master's kindness to his servant.

  47. A master who gave me authority over his wealth,

    so I may freely take or decline;

  48. he bestowed favors upon me for which I thank him—

    to him belong my thanks for them and all praise.

  49. I care nothing for the age, if he is my shield,

    though time has been my mighty adversary.

  50. He challenged all hands, and his hand surpassed them;

    no hand in all the world stands above his.

  51. May the Preserver preserve his two sons, and may they

    ever remain in the sweetest, most abundant life.

  52. No father has begotten their father's equal;

    none did before, nor will one ever be born afterward.

  53. They championed glory and became its party:

    they are its helpers and its victorious host.

  54. Noble indeed are they, and noble is their character,

    men of pure lineage, before and hereafter.

  55. They grew from it into splendid growth,

    and it nourished them on the milk of honor and glory.

  56. When you gaze deeply upon them,

    you find only a blazing meteor, mighty of forearm.

  57. Whenever he grew in dignity, I increased for him

    praises recited and sung throughout all time.

  58. When his first beard appeared, I dated it thus:

    “Muhammad's down appeared, dark as musk.”

Sol 5.6