Sol 6.1

  1. I have given you, O Time, the one you seek.

    After Amin, is there a brother to befriend?

  2. You enfolded affection in his person;

    So whose friendship shall I seek?

  3. And what substitute for him could I accept?

    And which of his virtues shall I mourn?

  4. Amin, be slow in parting, and care for me;

    For the bond between us lays its claim upon you.

  5. Do you remember when you were to me as the heartstring

    Is to the heart—or closer still to me?

  6. And when each of us was a brother to the other,

    And one a son to the other, and the other a father?

  7. And whoever among the onlookers said of us,

    'Jadhima's two boon companions,' told no lie.

  8. I thought you would live forever for me,

    Then what I had not expected came to pass.

  9. In this youth and within this skin,

    Does the pure, good young man die,

  10. And intelligence perish, and fidelity expire,

    And virtue fall or be destroyed?

  11. Strange are the deeds of death,

    And stranger still is my reproach for its deed.

  12. Thus God has decreed for His creation:

    For every person an appointed term is written.

  13. I found life to be the road to death,

    And each makes his way toward his doom.

  14. And in it the young man stumbles over youth,

    And the gray-haired man shuffles along with illness.

  15. And the poor man toils in it for provisions,

    And the wealthy are wearier still from wealth.

  16. And the ignorant man suffers in his ignorance,

    And the path grows narrow for the learned man.

  17. Watering places lie open for life;

    So which of its watering places is sweetest?

  18. Does the eye of death know whom it strikes,

    And does the hand of death know whom it smites?

  19. Was it when Amin's light had reached its fullness,

    And East and West gloried in him,

  20. And he fulfilled all that noble qualities had hoped for,

    And gave the virtues what they sought,

  21. And a hope in life had yielded to him,

    And his ambition for eminence was fulfilled,

  22. That death furled him like a banner, and there was furled

    With him a dawning hope we awaited?

  23. So, O distant one, though love has not grown distant,

    And his memory is never absent from the mind,

  24. Joy to the abode you sought!

    Indeed, the purest angel has visited it.

  25. And beside it flows a Kawthar drawn from virtues

    Of yours—sweet, from Paradise, delightful to drink.

  26. You have enjoyed bliss there and left me behind

    At an abode whose lightning brings no rain.

  27. A friend's affection there is ever-changing,

    And a friend's heart there is fickle.

  28. And dwelling there is hard for the noble man,

    But leaving it is harder.

  29. And O soil in which Amin rests,

    You are surely the gardens of Paradise, or more fertile still.

  30. You are set apart for the mercies of the Merciful,

    And may His favor drench you like pouring rain.

  31. And may the clouds never cease pouring down,

    While you draw their trailing skirts along.

  32. And may tears flowing from me water you,

    Mingled with lifeblood poured forth.

Sol 6.1