1. Stoic endurance is not the lovers' way,

    unless love is mingled with hypocrisy.

  2. The reproacher's spells poured forth, on the day of Muhajjar,

    tears upon both cheeks that would not cease.

  3. So in love we seem a people of faith,

    and he, in reproach, one of the people of discord.

  4. Bring wine to aid the man bitten by his times;

    for wine is an antidote for him.

  5. A virgin wine—to the beauties of her form were added,

    by mixing's touch, the beauties of character.

  6. And when Time gives me its calamities' poison to drink,

    I treat it with wine or a cupbearer.

  7. We, when the fortunate man has won his provision,

    are like young locusts, created without sustenance.

  8. I send toward the horizons the jewels of praise-poems;

    their rare wonders have found no market in those horizons.

  9. And I seek refuge from the lands' east in their west,

    only to return from weariness to failure.

  10. Like the crescent moon that hastened through a whole month,

    then its month's end struck it with extinction.

  11. A journey through which I hoped for the utmost wealth;

    yet through it I reached the utmost destitution.

  12. And how often I came to al-Sham and found relief,

    the Taghlibi prince's virtues loosening the noose at my throat.

  13. We praise him, his bounty our neck-rings,

    like doves cooing within their neck-rings.

  14. You renewed the ways of noble deeds, after

    their qualities had come to the brink of wearing out.

  15. And you dealt with calamities' turns just as

    your sword-edges dealt with a company torn to shreds.

  16. And through favors you mastered necks; indeed,

    kings' favors are nothing but shackles for necks.

  17. Glory is safe as long as your virtues are sound,

    and generosity endures as long as your right hand remains.

  18. You taught me to cast a far-reaching gaze toward the heights,

    after my foes had grown accustomed to my bowed head.

  19. So it is as though, through my eyes' sidelong glare, I strike

    with slender sword-edges at the enemy's schemes.

  20. So I shall surely bring you every rare marvel,

    for which the noble will become lovers.

Sol 6.1