Sol 6

  1. Do you pine for the woman dwelling at al-Burq,

    so that your heart becomes attached again?

  2. What have you to do with remembering a graceful woman

    who left you melting with burning anguish?

  3. She settled on the open slopes of Asnima

    and dispersed near the cut ground of Liwa al-Nafaq.

  4. Umama said, when she saw

    a figure with scarcely a breath of life left:

  5. “Can you bear love when separation comes?”

    I answered, “I tried, but could not bear it.”

  6. O Umama, by your life, have

    your eyes shed tears, and have you lain awake as I have?

  7. May I never taste your parting a second time,

    for your parting taught me fear.

  8. I imagine the necklaces at your throat,

    when they stir, resembling my own restless heart.

  9. Promise me you will pause and command

    your captive’s release; then go.

  10. At Rama was a herd of wild oryx

    whose eyes drew your heart toward them.

  11. They gave you a cup of love and separation

    and heartache; you grew drunk and never sobered.

  12. You once trusted in their affection,

    but they spurned you; would that you had never trusted.

  13. To companions of a night journey I said,

    while the desert’s paths were impassable

  14. and the pale camels seemed ready to melt,

    dissolving and running with sweat:

  15. “Cross Salma, then the heights of Aja,

    then the two ridges of Rama, then al-Burq.

  16. Drive the camels past Idam,

    then through the far reaches of al-Rudha.”

  17. They came to Aleppo and took gold;

    they wiped away their need and cast off silver coins.

  18. My friend, is that the gleam of moonlight,

    or the bright radiance of dawn?

  19. Or has the face of Abu al-Ulwan appeared

    to guide one cloaked in darkness?

  20. A king whose gaze has never looked out

    without rising above the horizon.

  21. Fierce, seasoned, keen, and perceptive:

    no one sought his shelter and came to grief.

  22. He travels by night and guides our mounts

    with the breeze of his fragrant scent.

  23. I suffered want, then glimpsed his hand’s generosity

    and was drenched in its abundant downpour.

  24. He erased my poverty, so I mingled my blood

    with love for him; may he endure and remain with us.

  25. My life itself is too small a ransom for people

    whose kindness has kept me alive.

  26. They drove away my want and valued my verses;

    my words rose in worth and my pages flourished.

  27. I accompanied them from early youth until

    the hair along my cheeks turned white.

  28. Thus I have kept company with a people whose equals

    no one has sought and found.

  29. How splendid they are: a company

    distinguished by deeds beyond compare.

  30. We are the people through whom

    the approaches to the watering place were barred and left untasted.

  31. We have warriors who, when they descend to battle,

    wrap themselves in chain mail down to their belts;

  32. long, hard spears with curved shafts,

    and light weapons with sharp cutting tips;

  33. fine horses accustomed to the charge,

    and desert-bred mounts racing at full speed.

  34. They leave the mountain goats beside the hills

    trembling in fear at the upheaval.

  35. O our bold horseman, while the heart

    of the stalwart warrior flies with dread,

  36. the horses bite their bits

    until they nearly soften from the pounding.

  37. Dust veils their faces

    and makes their very appearance seem changed.

  38. They envied you because you delighted them;

    but what people have you failed to delight?

  39. In what high rank, in what wisdom,

    and in what generosity have you failed to excel?

  40. In generosity, you are like the sea to one who draws from it;

    in praise, like musk to one who breathes it in.

  41. May you remain safe! How many favors of yours

    have forever bound my neck in gratitude.

  42. To you comes a carefully composed poem,

    arriving with its lines finely ordered.

  43. Radiant, it takes pride in its beauty

    and its striking, graceful appearance.

  44. I perfumed its written page with mention of you,

    as though ambergris were in the ink.

  45. It suited your exalted station; when told

    to suit another, it could not.

  46. It was made to delight one who drinks in the morning,

    soaked in your bounty, and one who drinks at evening.

  47. The poets followed my trail with it,

    but I eluded them, and they did not know my paths.

Sol 6