Sol 5.6

  1. She unveiled her face, and the radiance of the lights nearly—

    —carried away your sight, my friend.

  2. She strutted in the mantle of youth’s first bloom,

    her figure swaying with a proud, graceful stride.

  3. She stole a glance at me from the corner of her eye,

    and I felt a fiery sting within my entrails.

  4. Never before beholding her face

    had I seen a sun enfolded in a veil.

  5. A sun appeared above a swaying bough,

    upon a rounded dune beneath a sash.

  6. Her mouth’s nectar seemed a rain cloud’s pool,

    its draughts mingled with an admixture of wine.

  7. Her cheek is like the rose, pure in hue, while

    across its smooth planes the water of freshness flows.

  8. It resembles gardens of roses: its fragrances are like the—

    —fragrances, and its blossoms like the blossoms.

  9. A gazelle among gazelles—no, an idol among the—

    —idols—no, a moon among moons.

  10. O you who blame me if I have sold my soul for love,

    wholly to her—such a choice is no marvel.

  11. How could I find consolation apart from loving her, now that

    my secret and my open avowal are both in her keeping?

  12. With my very soul, I have never ceased to love her,

    forever pledging myself to passion and bargaining in it.

  13. And in a lush meadow made luxuriant by the rain,

    with copious, answering, unceasing downpours,

  14. between a morning cloud bursting into rain and an evening one,

    pouring streaming showers, drizzle, and steady rain,

  15. until, when the sky at last grew calm

    after the rains had lingered long,

  16. it dazzled with sparkling brilliance as there appeared

    the bloom of unopened buds and the green of trees.

  17. I beheld it and thought it had displayed to us

    pearls, or silver and gold.

  18. Its arar blossoms breathed fragrance there, as though

    the virtues of one praised for his character were arar blossoms.

  19. A lord whom God fashioned out of honor and

    generosity, munificence together, and glory;

  20. arrayed in abundant praise—and indeed he is

    among mankind stripped of every garment of disgrace.

  21. A moon crowns his head; within his palm

    is a sea; within his armor, a fierce lion.

  22. Pens have never run over parchment for him

    except by a decree among the decrees of Fate.

  23. The days and heavenly spheres obey him in

    all he seeks, as does Fate coursing onward.

  24. A king who governs his realm by his judgment,

    from Qalhāt’s gate as far as Julfār.

  25. He wheels to the charge amid the army’s dust as though

    a lion sinking its gripping claws.

  26. No cavalry of his enemies has ever faced him

    but that it has already turned in retreat.

  27. You see him snatch away armored champions when he strikes,

    astride a sleek steed commanding every horizon.

  28. O best of those whose praise, in measured cadence, the—

    —riders sing in the highlands and among the caravans.

  29. You are the peerless one, unique in your age; never has there been

    any rival to keep pace with you in loftiness or vie with you.

  30. You raced the masters of proud deeds and exalted rank,

    then outstripped them in the racecourse arena.

Sol 5.6