Sol 6.1

  1. The soul's course has strayed from discipline;

    it persists in loving one who torments it.

  2. The first of its desires deceives it,

    and so do the rainless flashes of torment's lightning.

  3. The breeze of the east wind stirs it,

    and the sound of the doves' lament enchants it.

  4. If the carefree sleep through their night,

    it stays awake, watching the stars' aspects.

  5. How many a sigh it sends up from its breast,

    and a tear it sheds upon its cheek!

  6. Beautiful, coquettish women bewitch it,

    and delightful diversions please it.

  7. Captive to doll-like beauties, it has a heart

    that sometimes uplifts it and sometimes starves it.

  8. How often it has been carried out at dawn and back at dusk

    by its youthful haunts and playground,

  9. racing it upon the horses of delusion,

    and dragging it in the trailing skirts of joy,

  10. where human gazelles are dressed in robes,

    their herd appearing amid their ornaments,

  11. each slender-waisted, soft and full-fleshed,

    her veiled face like the midmorning sun,

  12. a supple beauty, slim at her girdled waist,

    a tender beauty, and radiant at her girdled hips.

  13. When the darkness of her tresses parts,

    its blackness like that of the longest night,

  14. and the rosy glow of her cheek appears,

    and her scorpion-like curl coils above it,

  15. and her notched teeth are sweet between dusky lips,

    and her cool, white teeth show like daisy blossoms—

  16. all this, while the shy, companionable maidens may

    sadden us in love by wrapping themselves in cloaks.

  17. In the meadow of life, we are not alarmed

    by the changes amid our days.

  18. O friend, why this passion, when I see

    nothing with you that draws fair women near?

  19. Nor love for a beloved whom you would visit,

    nor delight in a charmer whom you would accompany.

  20. So leave descriptions of deserted dwellings;

    their Hind and their Zaynab have gone far away.

  21. And turn aside from a beloved who once lived there:

    long has been the longing for her, and hard the quest.

  22. Turn instead to mention of the kings of Yemen,

    now praising them, now recounting their lineage.

  23. And recall the kings of al-ʿAtīk in praise

    that is due from you to the house of Nabhān.

  24. When the mighty kings boast—

    beardless and grey-haired alike—of eminence,

  25. then their chosen one is Abū al-ʿArab, the

    foremost in glory among them, their Yaʿrub:

  26. their master, their champion, their noble lord,

    their chief, their valiant one, their refined one,

  27. master of their counsels, their governor,

    their resourceful, versatile master of affairs.

  28. He was nobly begotten of their Abū Muʿammar,

    all excellence gathered in him; thus he is their noblest,

  29. the freest-handed and most generous of them,

    the most eloquent in speech and the soundest,

  30. the finest and best in his ways,

    the noblest and purest in character.

  31. Yaʿrub surpasses mankind in his conduct,

    as gilded cloaks outshine the rest.

  32. The bestower of blessings, the benefactor, whose hand reaches far,

    as though the clouds' rainfall were its downpour.

  33. A morning rain-cloud poured upon us from his hands,

    thick and dark, its trailing fringe sweeping low.

  34. Then the earth strutted proudly beneath its rains,

    throughout the land, its settled tracts and level wastes.

  35. He is devoted to righteous deeds and performs them,

    and trained in noble deeds, which he achieves.

  36. And every maiden among his noble deeds—

    he courts her with the costliest dowries.

  37. His clan finds with him

    an abundance of goodness that draws them to him.

  38. He rewards their doers of good for righteous deeds,

    and their wrongdoers are not repaid with harm.

  39. And they are his support and refuge

    in grievous crisis, when he summons them.

  40. Yaʿrub springs from a Yemeni rootstock,

    whose origin lies in the house of al-ʿAtīk.

  41. Its allotted share is full when the arrows are drawn,

    its drinking-place clear amid the morning throng.

  42. No nation surpasses it in glory,

    nor any slain man overcomes it in valor.

  43. For the earth and all its lands are theirs,

    all its east and all its west.

  44. Its Mecca was not opened to the Messenger

    until its Yathrib gave victorious aid,

  45. with the Aws and the Khazraj, who marched

    with horses and armored men in their procession.

  46. Then a band advanced to wage war upon it,

    piercing it with spears and striking it.

  47. Like lions of the lair, the band is carried

    into battle by its lean, falcon-like steeds.

  48. O house of Nabhān, O sons of ʿUmar,

    yours are the sky of eminence and its star.

  49. May he remain in a blessing that brings him joy—

    Yaʿrub—or in a rank that he establishes.

Sol 6.1