Sol 5.6

  1. O face of the fairest one ever to walk on foot,

    By beauty’s sanctity, tell me: how was my blood made lawful?

  2. Nay, by your cheeks, whose water gives the roses drink,

    Through a kinship that shields the world from injustice;

  3. And by your eyes—whenever they turned, I saw within them

    Kinds of the very essence of glances, free of pain:

  4. Languid of lid, infecting others while themselves afflicted—

    That gaze, laden with maladies and sickness.

  5. Never did I call upon you except when it surrendered me—

    My patience; nor did I weep except when I did not sleep.

  6. Your beauty has no champions with whom I might challenge

    A beauty like it—beyond all image or idol.

  7. And a nobleman of Banū Wahb, possessed of character,

    Generous, burdened by nothing but excellence and munificence;

  8. Gilded at the very heart of kingship is his lineage,

    Masters of writing, intellect, and forbearance;

  9. From a house of the noble magnates, eminent in honor,

    Towering in loftiness above the rising-place of Capella;

  10. Upon a soaring summit of the edifice of glory,

    A height beyond the reach of ibex and white-footed mountain goats.

  11. The most resolute of humankind in crisis, and the soundest

    In judgment; a finer writer than any who dictated to a pen.

  12. At the moment of his resolve, he is like a keen-edged sword,

    Untouched by any flaw in its temper, or any notch.

  13. A youth through whom cultivated graces were adorned, and from whom

    The sciences went forth to every person of aspiration and understanding.

  14. How excellent a brother to a man in every condition of his life:

    In peace and hardship, in wealth and in want.

  15. A youth whose name’s meanings come before you plainly

    In deed, through the abundance of benefactions, boons, and blessings;

  16. A lavish giver of wealth, his qualities praised,

    Pure in fidelity to covenanted promise and obligations;

  17. One whose name is Ḥasan and whose deed is fair;

    Through this he stands alone in fair renown and eloquent speech.

  18. When I learned of the favorable hopes concerning him,

    My soul became certain that my aspirations had not died.

  19. And a summer rain-cloud among the rain-stars put me to shame,

    Streaming with one steady downpour after another.

  20. It laughed with the rain-clouds’ smile, revealing blossoms,

    Though it had only drawn them from the eyes of lasting rains.

  21. O you whose reach in beneficence is vast—as witness to it stand

    The seas’ noble bounty and every praiseworthy trait—

  22. If you cherish my love, then deliver me through the one to whom you allotted

    Love from yourself—I, the one who adjures you by oath.

  23. Are you not wholly praiseworthy, with no equal—

    Exalted through all time, from Salmā and from Iḍam?

Sol 5.6