Sol 5.6

  1. Whoever is stirred to longing by companions now far away,

    or turns back from a company after they have ascended into Najd,

  2. or is captivated by graceful, swaying figures,

    or by honey-sweet, gleaming teeth set slightly apart—

  3. and everyone who aspires to attain wealth,

    or whom poverty troubles—his night is sleepless.

  4. But my repose is in the little cup, borne

    to me by a cupbearer with a supple, graceful neck.

  5. I love him, though he nearly kills me;

    I embrace him, though he nearly snaps in two.

  6. I drink two wines, from a mouth and a hand;

    and the finest cupbearers ever to pour are mouth and hand.

  7. Who will restore Layla to me, and the sweetness of our night

    of union, when the spiteful watchers had fallen asleep?

  8. How often she kissed the parting of my hair there—and how often

    I kissed her mouth, whose taste was pure honey.

  9. Until, when the whiteness appeared to her,

    because of my graying hair-part she broke the promises she had made.

  10. A young man may roam far: whenever I journey from a land,

    elsewhere I have both friend and homeland.

  11. Prosperity is mine, and al-Khaṣīb is in Ramaʿ;

    and Egypt—nay, her Nile—is for whoever comes.

  12. Since al-Ḥusām—“the Sword”—clothed me in his favor,

    I have not mourned the Barmakids when their fortunes waned.

  13. And since Abu al-Afif took me under his care,

    no one among humankind has so filled my eyes—

  14. lord of Ramaʿ and the protected domain; and there within it are

    Muʿaybid, multitudes, and stores of arms.

  15. If he marches, they march behind his banner;

    or if he but gestures with his hand, they prostrate themselves.

Sol 5.6