1. She grows more withholding whenever I seek a favor,

    and proclaims injustice if I seek fair treatment.

  2. A bough burdens me with love's weight; whenever

    I weaken beneath it, she grants me many times more of it.

  3. What would it cost her, now that her mounts have hastened away,

    if the lovelorn were safe from what he feared from her?

  4. Rather, what would it cost the herd, when it surprised you, to turn

    its gazelles' necks and flanks toward you?

  5. They approached, lowering languid eyelids

    toward yearning, or extending their glances.

  6. One of them sways, heavy yet light,

    as though divided into boughs and slippers [possibly: sand dunes].

  7. And sometimes the brocade of cheeks appeared before us,

    with imminent parting having clothed it in striped fabrics.

  8. And a lightning-flash gleamed through the curtain;

    the rain of eyelids obeyed it, pouring down.

  9. In days when the sword envied his two flanks, whenever

    he brandished it and bent his sides with slender grace.

  10. He greeted the dune and called to longing from nearby,

    but could not halt the torrents of tears.

  11. And whenever the lightning flashed, it reminded him again

    of valley-bends and foothills by the mountain pass.

  12. I swear by forsaken sleep, which is driven

    far from us by the mounts' trotting and galloping:

  13. I have indeed bestowed noble speech upon a man of lineage

    among the Azd, loftily overlooking the heights.

  14. To Ibn Fahd we led in bridal procession every charming maiden,

    a virgin presenting him with praise as her gift.

  15. She came to him, not demanding fulfillment of a promise;

    how could she, having already received his bounty in advance?

  16. They grew familiar with his courtyard, never alighting there

    without finding life's gardens lushly intertwined.

  17. Bright-browed, he dispels every calamity from us,

    like dawn, which never ceases to dispel darkness.

  18. He runs smiling toward generosity on the day of giving,

    when the miser stands fast in his stinginess.

  19. Lofty—when men seek to attain his lordly rank,

    he rises higher, bringing them down to lowliness.

  20. If they defy glory, he does not swerve into defiance;

    or break a promise, he does not follow it with broken faith.

  21. He called generosity his own brother when he called

    close friends and allies from among kings.

  22. We visit him, boundless in generosity, and lavish on him

    praise, while he lavishes on us kindness and favors.

  23. He blunts misfortune's arrows for us with power,

    until he turns misfortune's arrows into targets.

  24. Who can rival him in glory when, boasting, he counts

    glorious men and nobles from Ya'rub's choicest stock?

  25. Lofty deeds whose fragrance sweetens our praises,

    like musk, from which the wind gathers scents.

  26. And a character that, when we see generosity restrained

    in anyone else, shows us generosity in lavish excess.

  27. And a resolve: his valor never ceases, through all time,

    to brandish its swords against his enemies.

  28. If the sword preserves his inherited wealth on the day of terror,

    he turns that preservation into dissipation through giving.

  29. One moment you see him kindly in his noble deeds,

    the next you see him charging again and again against his rivals.

  30. He walks by the light of sword-edges in every battlefield

    over which curtains of battle-dust are stretched in layers of darkness.

  31. Abu al-Fawaris, may our praises never cease

    to count us as your visitors and guests.

  32. Never has Time nocked an arrow at me that I feared

    without finding you my coat of mail and quilted armor.

  33. They came to you, embroidered in meaning and words,

    as though they were pearls that had split their shells.

  34. They have arrived to congratulate you on the abundant reward for

    the month of fasting, and on the Eid that has come.

Sol 6.1