Sol 5.6

  1. Leave me, you two, to my ardor and passion.

    O my two friends, go in peace.

  2. Love has called me, and my heart answered it.

    So leave me, and do not prolong your reproach.

  3. Whoever has once tasted love’s intoxication

    cares nothing for the multitude of reproachers.

  4. The wine of love has permeated my heart

    and flowed through my joints and bones.

  5. Then let a funeral prayer be said over learning and dignity,

    and bid reason a thousand thousand farewells.

  6. Is there any way for me to stand in the valley

    of al-Jazʿ, my two companions—or merely pay a brief visit?

  7. O traveler pressing onward, when

    you reach Najd, turn aside to Wadi al-Khuzama.

  8. Pass beyond Dhu al-Majaz, then turn,

    veering to the right of that place.

  9. And when you reach Hazwa, convey

    my greetings, brother, to the dwellers of the encampment.

  10. I sought my afflicted heart among them,

    for indeed it was lost among those tents.

  11. And if they pity my condition, ask them

    to grant me, if only, a phantom in a dream.

  12. O you encamped at Dhu al-Arak, how long

    will my years pass in separation from you?

  13. No breeze ever stirred, nor came a cooing from among—

    the boughs—from a dove; the chrysanthemum is my doom.

  14. Where are our days in eastern Najd?

    God preserve them—what glorious days!

  15. When the branch of youth was tender,

    and the meadow of life was embroidered by the hands of clouds;

  16. my time favored me, while the hands

    of diversion drew my reins toward desire.

  17. O you who alone ascend the summits of glory,

    the one looked to in grave calamities;

  18. O heir to generosity, in whom were gathered

    virtues scattered throughout humankind.

  19. At glory’s pinnacle you attained a station

    hard to ascend and difficult to attain:

  20. a pure lineage and deep-rooted glory,

    lofty pride and sublime merit.

  21. We have joined your noble words to verse

    and paired your words with words of ours.

  22. We strung them with pearls upon a necklace

    and said that ambergris was like dust.

  23. I would not have ventured upon this—but

    my undertaking was in obedience to the command.

  24. By your life—God preserve you—my companion, sing:

    “O neighbor, how can you think it fair to reproach me?”

Sol 5.6