Sol 6

  1. I yearned for Sulayma and al-Rabab.

    But what has a gray-haired man to do with youthful flirtation?

  2. How many a sheltered maiden, fragrant and full-figured,

    Soft-limbed, fair-skinned, and newly mature,

  3. Whose anklets were silent, drew her wrap

    Over a rising hip like a dune of sand.

  4. I was alone with her, yet did nothing wrong;

    Nothing passed between us but reproach.

  5. When gray appears at the back of a man's head

    And the hairdressers console him with dye,

  6. His freshness has gone and faded away.

    Rise, my friend, and let us weep for youth.

  7. What has passed of it will return to no one

    Until the Day of Return,

  8. The day when people return

    To their worldly life before the reckoning.

  9. I hold that this is truly so,

    And I have no doubt about resurrection,

  10. For God has told of men

    Who lived again after decaying in the earth.

  11. A reckless fool spoke ignorantly against Ali,

    So I said to him, ‘Wait; let me answer.’

  12. Is he not one of Quraysh's men of virtue,

    Among their foremost when they are counted, and the essence of noble descent?

  13. And among the very first in Islam,

    And famed for striking blows in battle,

  14. At Badr, then Uhud, then Salʿ,

    When he went forth with a keen, bright sword

  15. Against Amr, who was of Quraysh

    And stood high in its line of descent?

  16. O people, what an astonishing wonder:

    The shoe of Abu al-Husayn and al-Hubab!

  17. An enemy from among the hostile jinn, a wretch

    Far gone in rebellion and far from good sense,

  18. Came to his shoe and slipped inside it

    To bite his foot with a fang,

  19. To bite the best of those who ride mounts,

    The Commander of the Faithful, Abu Turab.

  20. Then an eagle swooped down from the sky for him,

    An eagle, or something like an eagle.

  21. It flew off with it, circled high, then plunged

    With it toward the earth, below the clouds.

  22. It struck the shoe, and the creature slipped out;

    It turned and fled, fearing a shower of stones,

  23. To its hole, where it slipped inside,

    A deep hole without a door to bar it.

  24. It was ugly-faced, black, and glinting,

    Sharp-fanged, bluish, and wet with saliva.

  25. Even the bold man cries out when he sees it:

    It rushes swiftly and its leap is feared.

  26. Its appointed end was delayed, though he threw

    Hard stones at it and missed.

  27. And Ali, Abu al-Hasan, was protected

    From its potent venom after it had slipped away.

Sol 6