Sol 5.6

  1. There must be a pause for lowly lamentation,

    while the caravan weeps between the faded trace and the ruined camp.

  2. Were it not for hope of drawing near to those we love,

    without grief for the ruins, borne there on camels...

  3. I complain of passion, though through her I brought the wrong upon myself;

    whom can I blame, then, for what came from my own heart?

  4. I have no strength for patience, since the hand of parting has toyed with it—

    O hand of parting, may God strike you with palsy!

  5. My beloved’s secret is in my keeping; I will not disclose it.

    The day a lover’s secret is lost, he is ignoble.

  6. Love is cheapened unless one takes account within it

    of the watcher’s presence and restrains the voice of reproach.

  7. The sweetest life is when you chance upon its solitude,

    free of a watchful heart or a distracted eye.

  8. At the familiar dwelling I parted from my intimate companion,

    with neither aversion in our two hearts nor weariness.

  9. My last sight of her was a dark-lipped gazelle fawn who felt tenderness for me,

    with the eye of a young gazelle—were it not for the anklets’ place.

  10. A wide-eyed, polished maiden, the side teeth of her smile gleaming white;

    slender-waisted, finely formed, her hips swaying.

  11. Though I forget all else, I cannot forget her tears on the day of parting,

    when I stretched toward her the palm of one departing.

  12. We lingered; and however many tears we poured

    down our cheeks, we sipped them away with kisses.

  13. She rose and sought refuge in my embrace, terrified

    by parting, while within her was fear’s bewilderment.

  14. Distance has wrought nothing in me save that through it I have been denied

    the patience to forget; nor have I taken any substitute.

  15. Whenever a thirst born of passion’s heat assails me,

    I remember the coolness of the incisors in your evenly set mouth.

  16. And whenever I smell the wind’s soft breeze, it reminds me,

    at daybreak, of the fragrance of your dew-fresh scent.

  17. I salute your dwelling; may the rain return to it in torrents,

    watering it shower after shower at dawn and evening,

  18. until it leaves pools among the hills,

    as though the hand of Ali had dripped into them—

  19. a hand that pours pure gold, all of it, every morning,

    upon the needy, like the downpour of a teeming raincloud.

  20. Abu al-Qasim has gained the abundant share

    of glory—both newly won and inherited from his earliest forefathers.

  21. The glorious possessor of noble endeavor—to him belongs

    preeminence in every virtue, in both word and deed;

  22. he who thrusts at the cavalry, his slender spear in his right hand,

    giving it repeated draughts of the valiant horseman’s lifeblood.

  23. Crowned with glory’s splendor in a noble lineage,

    his station, in glory’s purest core, is upon the summits.

  24. Around him gather, from the sons of Nabhan, all the young men,

    ennobled and wrapped in the robe of excellence—

  25. lionhearted chiefs, noble lords, and champions who, whenever they ride,

    make the horsemen’s blood flow beneath their spears.

  26. No crookedness in the spear of lofty honor was ever made straight

    except by the bending of their slender Khattian spears.

  27. They are the ones who made every noble virtue manifest

    and made clear the roads that lead to lofty honors.

  28. Generosity was known only through them; and likewise,

    but for them, we would not know how blameworthy miserliness is.

  29. When the lightning of generosity flashed among them

    along the roads of bounty, hope’s envoy found its way.

  30. May his virtues bring joy to the pure Abu al-Qasim,

    for in lofty deeds they are the utmost exemplar.

  31. May he endure, nourished by glory and high estate,

    while joy pours abundantly amid wealth and retainers.

  32. Here it is—take it: a virgin poem, daughter of its very hour;

    though I hurried its composition, it came in well-proportioned attire.

Sol 5.6