ملامك في الهوى أذكى غليلي — Al Sari Al Raffa

Your reproach in love fanned my burning anguish,

and kindled the searing pain of deep-seated grief.

I find my anguish at their departure beautiful;

so how can I seek refuge in beautiful patience?

A parting loosed the bridle of tears, until

they would surely plead our excuse before the reproacher.

A ceaseless parting from a band of companions

wastes my blood and tears among the ruins.

And can the heart be free of youthful dalliance

when the dwellings are empty of the beloved?

He unjustly restored to us estrangement's noonday heat,

though we had been in the late afternoon of union.

And my gaze roamed over the two sides of a slender branch

that keeps it sleepless, and the two sides of a solitary doe's neck.

In fear, she withholds the pomegranate blossom of her cheek,

yet freely offers the narcissus of her kohl-dark eye.

And what gifts she brought my vitals, when

she swayed in gauzy robes—gifts of burning anguish!

I grow jealous when it reveals my hidden longing

and keeps me sleepless—the gleam of faint lightning—

and unstrings the necklaces of my tears at a dwelling

as though its landmark's wasting were my own.

As though the hand of the clouds had adorned its hillocks

with blossoms in lustrous embroidery.

When the anemones smile there at dawn,

they sway beneath the east wind's gentle breeze.

The trickling dew there reminds me

of tears streaming down a smooth cheek.

Why do I turn away from an abundant share

and content myself with a little of a little,

when Ibn Yahya has revived generosity for us

and made its name renowned after obscurity?

A youth whose glory turns praise toward him,

who welcomes those who place their hopes in him.

And he wafted abroad a generous soul's virtues,

as the north wind sweeps over wine.

We found him the most exalted of al-Azd in rank,

and their fiercest in the face of great calamity.

And since he was noble in root, he was noble in branch;

and a branch's nobility comes from the nobility of its roots.

So if ever he boasts above his peers,

then forehead blazes have the right to boast over white stockings.

I bound my hope to him, and was met in turn by

the nature of a noble, kindly, ever-generous man.

So, a meadow where I blessed my wish fulfilled,

and a shade where I gave thanks for my midday rest.

An abode where hopes graze freely

throughout the days in sheltering shade.

And there the Khatti spear takes long strides

that shorten the span of a long life.

You have won, Abu al-Husayn, my abundant thanks

for the abundant bounty you bestowed.

You lengthened my hands against Time, until

I assailed it with a conqueror's might.

And how many an unattainable hope I befriended,

only for it to leave me standing at a timeworn ruin!

I set my hopes on people ignorant of high honor,

so they strayed, though its path was clear.

So whichever of them my ambitions turned toward,

they saw a lock and hastened to return.

I am generous to the generous with my finest praise,

and miserly with praise toward the miser.

And I refuse to let the ornament of my praise be seen

on a blade that rebounds, blunt among blades.

They have come to you, innate talent's watery sheen coursing through them,

as watery sheen courses through a polished sword:

Rhymes—if they incline a flank toward a man,

he turns his flanks in a splendid mantle.

So pay no heed to borrowed wording

with which you are plied at intervals, or to an impossible meaning.