Sol 6.1

  1. The rebuker ceased rebuking him, and he took heed.

    And the reproacher folded away what he had spread.

  2. Waywardness laid its burden upon him;

    Yet whenever he was said to have turned from it, he persisted.

  3. He says, if the warnings of gray hair appear

    In his sideburns—and what use are warnings?

  4. Hair that has died upon his crown,

    Yet a man's life lies in the death of his hair.

  5. And youth has withered, save for trees

    Still quivering from it—how long can trees endure?

  6. O my two friends, seek your desire;

    You will find it between a cup and a lute-string.

  7. The monastery's lookout stirred my longing, while

    The clouds' downpour had come there at evening and at dawn.

  8. Is it air grown gentle in its precincts,

    Or love grown clear, with no murk within it?

  9. And are these cheeks unveiling their roses,

    Or spring unveiling the harvest of roses?

  10. A gathering the drinkers leave, yet

    Those spread-out patterned cloths have not been folded away.

  11. And it is as though the sun had scattered there

    Silver coins from among the leaves of the trees,

  12. Among pools on which birds alight,

    So you see them as gardens within pools.

  13. And soil, whose fragrance is attested by

    A scent allied with the hems of waist-wraps.

  14. And clouds that have unfurled their banners,

    So their shade lies spread over us.

  15. And a breeze that has perfumed the meadow; if

    It flies at dawn, we wear it as perfume.

  16. We are in the temperate shade of union,

    Gentle in its late afternoons, luxuriant in its early mornings.

  17. And when Time's vicissitudes assail us,

    Then through Ammar ibn Nasr we prevail.

  18. O prince to whom Time has bowed,

    So now it does, in full, all he commands.

  19. And when drought befalls, he is life-giving rain;

    And when calamity grows dark, he is a moon.

  20. And when stirred to generosity, he goes forth,

    Like a keen-edged sword: if brandished, it severs.

  21. With genuine cheer, you see the water of bounty

    Rise in his face or flow down.

  22. For it has a hidden flow there,

    Like the flow of water in a keen, hard-steeled blade.

  23. I said, when he outstripped others in lofty rank:

    Is there a shortcut to glory?

  24. If Taghlib once marked

    The face of Time with a renowned day,

  25. Then among the sons of al-Harith there is refuge,

    When no refuge saves one from Time.

  26. For Adi are the forehead blazes of glory, when

    Glory is divided into white leg-marks and forehead blazes.

  27. A people—were it not for tales of bounty

    About them, people would not have known night-time conversation.

  28. O Abu al-Yaqzan, you have awakened generosity,

    So you have filled desert and town with it.

  29. And how many an armored warrior have you felled,

    Steadfast in his daring, defending and charging anew!

  30. And forenoon is black in the battle-dust; if

    The sword-edges smile within it, it bears a white blaze.

  31. A battle-scene—if it were not fire, then

    Its blue spear-points would not be sparks.

  32. Spear-thrusts are threaded upon its champions,

    And necklaces of heads are scattered within it.

  33. And the sun amid its swirling dust seems

    A budding maiden whose twin curtains modesty has lowered.

  34. So through it you sought the praise of glory,

    While the spears swayed, leaving praiseworthy marks.

  35. And you turned the horses back from it, wearing

    The robe of victory, adorned with triumph.

  36. The fast has ended commendably; return

    To a praiseworthy love or wine that delights.

  37. You and the festival you have returned to

    Are the twin forehead-blazes of this murky age.

  38. Praising you was so sweet that I thought it

    Night-time talk in which staying awake did not weary me.

Sol 6.1