ردي الخيال يجد معنى واجدا — Al Sari Al Raffa

Send the phantom back; it will find a tormented, yearning man.

You made him ill, and your apparition came to visit him.

Never since parting has the delegation of his sleep traveled by night

without your phantom traveling with it as a visitor.

And the yearning lover's torment is to be denied love

awake, though you join him as he sleeps.

The appointed times of parting came, as though

the women had thereby kept appointments with death.

Those gazelles showed themselves at Dhu al-Ghada,

their necks inclined toward us, though at Dhu al-Arak they had turned away.

There the embrace tightened around their necks,

until their necklaces scattered, jewel by jewel.

And tears flowed, safflower-colored, resembling

canopies and saffron-dyed robes over their moonlike faces.

They checked the tears that fell afresh

and restrained the breath that rose upward.

They saw the heat within our hearts and granted us

sips through which love's ardor turned cool.

If anyone lets bounty's scout depart from his palm,

Ibn Abd Allah's bounty summons the scout.

Come to drink: you will find one departing with a quenched breast

from him, and one arriving with a thirsty breast.

Or a traveler urging on the camels of his bounty with song,

or a poet sending odes to you.

Or have you not seen the rain's judgment go astray

when it sought to match the emir in its gifts?

When it increased, I said, 'You are no match for

Sayf al-Dawla's ever-increasing bounty.'

A rain whose clouds are spurred onward by generous zeal,

until it reaches kin and strangers alike.

And one who renews his ample gifts after

their first bestowal had already made renewal needless.

He loved holy war; whenever denied battle with the foe,

his generosity waged war on all he possessed.

Through the night his determination drove his horses to brave

the lofty mountains, descending and climbing.

He hurls them against the foe, at times driving them from behind,

guarding their rear, and at times leading them.

Lean-bellied steeds: when they advance toward the foes' homelands,

none remain but the slender or the powerfully built.

He strides across the Euphrates on them, whether flowing,

its wave-crests soaring, or frozen solid.

A king who chases their kings with spears,

until he drives them before him as hunted quarry.

Among young warriors who donned iron as mail hoods,

visors, full coats of mail, and armguards.

The lion of battle leads them; in truth he leads

only lions and black serpents from their ranks.

They seized the seat of kingship from their foes,

so through that the earth's expanses became places of prostration.

A charge turns the air pitch-black

and turns the earth's face red, encrusted with blood.

The nicks in bright swords have become spokesmen for it,

and wounds in the steeds' breasts bear witness.

And fingers that exhaust all asking: were

the sea to match their bounty, it would run dry.

May the loyal never lack you as an ally

in what you approve, nor the defiant as an opponent.

For the summits of faith's pillars have risen high,

while unbelief has perished, summits and foundations alike.

And in the Romans' land, captive-taking has left

no child, nor have spearheads left a father.

You spent the month of fasting either bowing,

with profound devotion in it, or prostrate.

So it passed; were a man praised for his fasting

and nightly prayer, it would have offered you praises.

May you greet your approaching feast of fast-breaking with good fortune,

and see your festival return with joy.

And though you forsook the gatherings of drinking companions,

you indeed frequented the scenes of death.

You desired the cup of humankind with such longing

that it left you abstaining from the cup of wine.

You clothed me in favors that altered

a friend's affection for me, making him envious because of them.

So for them you shall surely wear praise carried far and wide,

and made immortal as long as Yadhbul endures,

from every choice ode, whose wording suffices you

as dazzling gold; and you suffice it as an assayer.