Sol 5.6

  1. The phantom of Asma journeyed by night while the stars stood still,

    and not an eyelid in the encampment but lay asleep.

  2. It healed an ache when it came to my bed,

    and spent the night drawing near to me, though long kept distant.

  3. It came despite the watchman’s spite, while between us lay,

    despite the assaults of time, vast and trackless deserts.

  4. May the clouds’ promised rain water the days we knew; it would not have

    kept faith with the covenant but for those familiar haunts—

  5. haunts that rekindle the heart’s burning anguish, which

    endures from its pains all that it endures.

  6. As though the ravens in those haunts were blue-eyed:

    there shade is kohl, and branches are kohl-sticks.

  7. I beguile an ailing soul with hopes,

    while the springs from which its hopes drink run turbid.

  8. Come, all of you, wound me with blame—for my hearing

    is like Ibn Ayyash’s heart, and those reproaches are rancors.

  9. You are the leader of humankind in that eloquence of yours,

    before which even a denier admits defeat.

  10. Among my wonders is that the sun journeys ceaselessly,

    while my consuming care sits fixed within me like an island.

  11. If a place I have grown used to does not suit me,

    then every place like it shall be bereft of me.

  12. I am not like men whom their own lands have swallowed up:

    those men are dead, and their lands are graves.

  13. Even if my lineage were not—and far be that from it—noble,

    it is enough that I, its branch, am noble today.

  14. My envier said, “Where is your inheritance from those forebears?”

    I answered them, “My wealth from those noble ones is spent.”

  15. If wealth does not earn you everlasting praise,

    then would that I knew: what use can wealth be?

Sol 5.6