Sol 6.1

  1. Burning pangs draw tears in torrents,

    and a phantom visits a phantom late at night.

  2. They reproached me; youthful dalliance is not satisfied

    by a lover who does not anger the reproachers.

  3. May I never lose this new love, even if it renews

    burning anguish and madness within my heart.

  4. Tears have engrossed me in it; I know

    no occupation but their overflowing.

  5. For a bough that shakes my heart whenever it sways,

    and sometimes bends it whichever way it bends;

  6. and for a crescent summoned by the call of parting,

    who became a crescent through distance.

  7. The exile of separation was fair and foul,

    in sight and deed on the day they parted.

  8. Curtained canopies never lowered from the backs of pale camels,

    and pale camels never complaining of fatigue;

  9. and separation that leaves burning longing abiding

    for oryxes that send tears rushing.

  10. I do not keep faith with love held inviolate unless

    my tears are freely lavished upon it as long as I live.

  11. Each day in al-Sham we watch for a rain cloud,

    approaching, through which we hope for good fortune.

  12. And when it struts before the riding camels and riders,

    they journey proudly toward its bounty.

  13. They remembered generosity's stronghold and undid

    the pale camels' hobbles, then cinched the saddles.

  14. They kept traveling, morning and late afternoon,

    at a swift trot, cutting through the sands.

  15. Repeated draughts of Prince Ali's bounty were given

    to whoever among them set out seeking gifts.

  16. A king who attained the summit of glory when

    men of Adi were counted for glory.

  17. They became rain clouds in generosity, and in battle's terror

    lions, and mountains in forbearance.

  18. A just ruler of that line surveyed the East, bringing

    straightness there to Islam's spear-shaft.

  19. And a valiant man who pleases the swords when he resolves

    upon a deed, and angers wealth.

  20. He marched, sending to it with the north wind

    a fragrance that perfumed the east and north winds.

  21. A king whom deaths obeyed: if he wished,

    he would scatter deaths and appointed ends.

  22. And he wheeled his horses westward at a run,

    wearing caparisons of dust.

  23. He made their breasts fair game for the spearhead,

    in valor, and set their haunches free.

  24. O you who answered Islam when it called upon you,

    and relieved Islam when it asked for relief.

  25. Your valor's sword gave the Romans a promise

    after which they found neither breach nor delay.

  26. They lodged in a cramped abode of doom,

    so you made death their guest-fare.

  27. And you took up a dwelling in al-Sham,

    which grows more beautiful through you every day.

  28. A homeland of radiant open spaces, and a garden

    sheltered beneath shadows cast by branches.

  29. You won it when your spears became a wall

    around its wall, which defied capture.

  30. Encircling, it fears no turn of ill fortune

    when the enemy assails it treacherously.

  31. With towers joined to water in the earth

    and linked all the way up to the sky.

  32. They are like clouds, embracing the horizon

    and trailing their skirts over the earth.

  33. And fortresses, lovely as howdahs,

    making generations their mounts.

  34. And when the cloud struts proudly above them,

    you take it for their canopy and curtained chambers.

  35. Each solidly built fortress—when a tyrant thinks

    it a stronghold, he finds it a fetter.

  36. They overlook the seas, which you see

    to right and left beneath them.

  37. They gleam, as though the sun had poured

    molten gold upon them, and it flowed.

  38. And it is as though the eyes behold among them

    maidens displaying their beauty in varied forms.

  39. Inviolate are a man's protected precincts, though

    the blood of oath-breakers is lawful there.

  40. His two hands sought me out despite the distance,

    with favors that confer prestige and wealth.

  41. So through them I became the freshest-stemmed of men,

    and through them became the best off of all.

  42. They set my tongue free to praise him,

    so I improvised his praise on the spot.

Sol 6.1