Sol 6

  1. Bujayla said as I prepared to depart,

    “Lord, spare my father sickness and ruin.”

  2. And You, Lord, have mercy on her and prolong for us

    her life, and protect her from want and illness.

  3. Bujayl, there is a resting place for every person’s side

    that no one can avert when its time comes.

  4. One present among his people is like one absent

    when death comes and his day draws near.

  5. A person’s journey does not bring his death nearer

    than what God decreed in the Furqan when He wrote it.

  6. Terror does not turn back a man like me among people like you

    when he straps on his sword and binds himself for action.

  7. Nor does the raven whose omen your diviner cannot read;

    perhaps its croak brought us good tidings.

  8. Bujayl, go to your mothers and close your eyes;

    calamities have made me forget delight.

  9. Have I found a father of my age for a girl

    for whom time has left a father from her two parents?

  10. Once I had kin whose houses stood around me;

    they departed, though I still know my lineage.

  11. What overtook them will overtake me;

    each lived a while and then passed away.

  12. If I return, I shall earn for them

    the wealth a daughter needs, if a resourceful man can earn it.

  13. If news of my death reaches you, mourn a father

    who bore up against enemies and grave affairs.

  14. Ask God’s forgiveness for me, remember me, and seek His reward;

    God rewards the one who patiently seeks it.

  15. Do not let Satan make his temptation seem fair to you:

    tearing your clothes or gashing your face.

  16. I set out before the people when I had lost

    my camels and horses and feared hunger and war.

  17. Of all I owned, I became like a palm trunk

    from which a pruner has stripped fiber and frond bases.

  18. The pale year of famine, when it returned, left nothing

    for us or our daughters to live on.

  19. So I chose a Mahri she-camel, her mature tooth newly split,

    from noble camels whose care shows their breeding and discipline.

  20. Unburdened, she had never been led by a herdsman for breeding,

    nor nursed a young one so that she might be milked.

  21. She seemed like a full-grown stallion driving his rival mares,

    lean and strong, teaching them to go out and return to water.

  22. When he saw a shape, whether like himself or another,

    he stretched his stride across the heights and neighed.

  23. As he ran, seemingly unconcerned,

    his fierce drive made him seem lame or troubled by a twisted limb.

  24. The other stallions fled from him and yielded to him,

    though they had left the sides of his neck raw.

  25. Was it that one, or a pale stallion with black legs,

    alone, wading through the early rain’s dew and grass?

  26. When lightning lit his form, he seemed

    cloaked in patterned cloth and warming himself at a flame.

  27. He grazed in meadows where flies distracted him,

    some humming, others raising a din.

  28. Until a generous rainstorm came upon him in a bend of land,

    its edges echoing with thunderous noise.

  29. Rain washed him all night in a cold

    east wind, until he grew chilled and miserable.

  30. He crouched beside the edge of an arta tree, seeking its shelter,

    on his knees when the downpour spilled.

  31. Then the sun revealed its beauty,

    and a north wind renewed it, bringing a sudden marvel:

  32. drooping-eared, lean animals marked as though with straps,

    and a gaunt hunter seeking prey.

  33. He swooped like a brilliant star, while they darted away,

    racing one another, with none following a captured one.

  34. They cut across the flat as his legs had cut across it,

    and leapt from the rough ground he had leapt over.

  35. Like cattle among blossoming lavender, with torn clumps

    scattered where they had pulled and where he had pulled.

  36. At times he was far away while they strained

    among the hard stones; at times he was close at hand.

  37. When they had gained two miles and their pace faltered,

    he could have left them behind if he wished, and broken away.

  38. His courage wheeled him back to defend his own,

    or anger drove him back.

  39. He aimed his two horns unerringly at their flanks

    until they reeled about on the open ground, bloodied.

  40. None among them remained alive except one drawing a last breath;

    when it breathed, blood warmed its belly.

  41. Then he went on unharmed and unconcerned,

    as though his two horns were stained with yellow and red dye.

  42. That was what I likened her to when her handler came

    at departure, and she came knowing the quick trot.

  43. She came submissively, looking for the saddle:

    a Mahri she-camel that had borne neither a foal nor a load.

  44. I had spared her work until the two sides

    of her hump swelled, ready to bear saddle and packsaddle.

  45. I clothed her with the saddle from a large, long-necked camel;

    she relished walking through the desert and trotting.

  46. Between us and the Commander of the Faithful’s residence

    lay sixty days of hardship for one who kept going.

  47. Visit Hisham, leader of the people, and seek his favor;

    that is how one whose needs are met seeks favor.

  48. She crosses rugged heights toward the easy ground beyond,

    though the rocks have cut sores into her hooves.

  49. She enters the lowlands only beneath a blazing midday sun,

    when the wretched traveler climbs his mount and sits upright.

  50. Then she journeys in the evening while the sparrow is sheltered

    and the gazelle has settled in its haunt.

  51. She does not stop for the night until she sees clearly

    a watering place from which the night seems to flee.

  52. From Fulayj and Falaj she ventures onward,

    across their deserts and difficult ground.

  53. Barren valleys meet her along the way,

    and she swallows up their broad and narrow stretches.

  54. She passes through them with her last water nearly gone;

    the short girth hangs loose and swings.

  55. She tastes water only where a resting place lies above it,

    where doves shed feathers and down.

  56. In al-Samawa, if a desert spirit spent the night racing her,

    it would be worn out by morning.

  57. At last she saw a mountain among the mountains of Syria, girdled

    with shimmering haze; its peaks showed even when the mirage faded.

  58. It seems to draw near when the mirage nears and lifts it;

    when the shimmer shrinks away, it sinks from sight.

  59. The camels did not reach it until I nearly abandoned her,

    and the pack ropes had cut deep beneath her girths.

  60. A wolf followed her blood-marked tracks,

    blood from her sore feet; then it feared my sword and turned back.

  61. Two months of thirst had wasted her

    until only bones, skin, and sinew remained.

  62. She does not flinch from the whip when her master points it,

    nor quicken or groan even when struck.

  63. I have not sought from the leader of the people

    some remote request, nor have I been one to play games.

  64. But fear gripped my heart that the earth would sink

    beneath my feet if you gave me no means of support.

  65. Here is my hand, stretched out to you;

    fill it with a generous gift, and seek God’s reward.

  66. As a king once drew me from the depths of darkness

    where time had left me no scrap of support:

  67. a radiant king, son of a king, whom we grew up hoping in,

    brother of kings who governs Persians and Arabs.

  68. The caliphate shows in their faces

    as gold shows against the whiteness of silver.

  69. They attain what they seek when they reach out their hands

    and lead those who pursue the highest prize.

Sol 6