1. Stand back, if your fire-stick will not kindle—

    even though its sparks could cleave the stars.

  2. You did not fan the fire of reproach when

    you came to me at dawn; you only fanned my own fire.

  3. The whiteness of life was not veiled from me

    by a whiteness that appeared, gleaming in my side-lock.

  4. That is why grayness traveled into it toward me—

    may the rainclouds never water every traveler!

  5. You blame me, then, for showing no reverence

    to one who forced his way through the darkness toward my gray dignity.

  6. I saw the companionable maidens grow at ease, until

    grayness hastened forth—and they hastened to flee.

  7. They are tribes who, whenever they rally, still take

    the blackness of their hair as their banner.

  8. It is as though the dreaded gray-haired guest among them

    must take his hospitality behind the wall:

  9. if I lodge him, it is in a separate dwelling;

    and if I bring him near, I do so warily.

  10. And many a slender beauty—between his eye and my heart

    lie disputants who have never emerged from secrecy.

  11. No judgment can be passed upon what is concealed,

    unless the two appear where judgment holds sway.

  12. Yet there is no path to reconciling them—

    just as there is no path to my patience.

  13. And many a calamity drew near, so I drew near to it;

    it was one that took no pleasure in my flight.

  14. Today I heard behind me the tread of the unseen

    and the largesse of Abu Muhammad al-Bishari.

  15. Both have caught up: this one, on my right,

    pursues it, and this one on my left.

  16. He rivals his clouds, generosity for generosity,

    while clouds like them rise out of the dust.

  17. And through them there ceaselessly charges a bold noble,

    bright of face, his sword-edge dyed with blood.

  18. His nature and his open hand are equally generous,

    so the winds cannot tell which of them they are racing.

  19. If some men have borrowed glory

    and thought to keep what they borrowed,

  20. then his swords, throughout every land,

    are loans—or by them borrowed glories are returned.

  21. Loftiness delights him, without arrogance;

    glory thrills him, without boasting.

  22. He does what they merely claim, and you never see him

    disputing with them over it or wrangling.

  23. Swift mares have prospered by drawing near to you—

    mares that bring every runner near to you.

  24. On the morning you caught up with them, you stripped from them

    then and there every trace of shame.

  25. They became accustomed to pursuit,

    though before that they had been accustomed to flight.

  26. From your namesake I shall string, concerning you, a necklace,

    and let whatever remains fall as scattered gems.

  27. How often people have spoken at length,

    yet my brevity has rivaled all that length.

  28. And if one day they join to their words a tally of merits

    against anyone, I shall join my apology to it.

  29. As for your glory, words about it have not sufficed you;

    but I have knowledge whose testing has spared all others.

Sol 5.6