أقسمت بالسحر بين الكحل والوسن — Mufti Fathallah

I swore by the magic between kohl and drowsiness,

and the sharp sword drawn from his sleepy glance,

and the full moon shining splendidly in the east of his forehead,

and the sun rising in his beautiful face,

and the scorpion-curl at his temple, aligned with his eyebrow's bow,

a constellation of charms aligned with beauty's brow,

and the garden of his cheek, whose radiance puts to shame

the flowers of garden and branch through the beauty of its roses,

and the musk of his mole amid the roses of his cheek:

how lovely the musk above the freshly picked rose!

And the myrtle of his cheek-down, which his cheek waters

with modesty's water and rosewater, not rain clouds,

and the night of his hair, whose gleams appear

from its blackness like lightning amid dark clouds,

and the full moon of his radiant forehead, flanked

by the two dawns of his brow-sides, between ear and ear,

and his forelock's gleam from the moon of his forehead:

it has no need of oiling or oils.

And the pearls of his pearly mouth as he smiles,

which no appraisal can confine within a price:

over them stands a well-set gate of ruby;

how lovely the pearls stored beside the ruby!

And the wine of his saliva, blended with honey,

without any blending, but through the Bountiful One's creation:

it quivered, sweet-flowing, in the cup of his smiling mouth,

and appeared, intoxicating me with an imagined sip.

And his neck, shining beneath his radiant face:

how bright the neck beneath the face and cheeks!

For it shone like a column of dawn, while

the morning sun surmounted it in the finest adornment.

And the chest beneath it: were it revealed uncovered,

the full moon of darkness would vanish eclipsed, unseen.

So the face and chest, with the neck between them,

are two suns shining forth with beauty in one age,

and the dawn between them displays its sparkle;

the like of this dawn, as of these two suns, has never been.

And the spear of his swaying stature, gently bent,

shaming the winds and the swaying of moringa and branch,

and his slender waist, whose girdle is the finger-sign for ten,

and likewise his belly, containing the fairest folds,

and everything in him of form and character,

and the water of grace flowing through that body:

nothing he possesses in form or character

is adorned with anything but the most radiant, highest beauty.

And God fashioned him as a temptation to mankind;

yes, and made him among the greatest temptations.

To sing of love for those like him is beautiful;

what, then, is love poetry about ruins and deserted campsites?

I loved him, my heart distraught with passion,

and love for him cast me into the hands of trials.

It stripped away my reason and understanding in loving him,

and imposed enmity between eyelid and sleep.

It tormented my heart through separation without cause,

and clothed my body in the garment of sickness and sorrow.

So I became like a phantom appearing on a cloudy day;

without my speaking, whoever I addressed would not have seen me.

And I was crazed for him, stripped of reason, bereft of it,

revealing my longing in secret and openly.

I do not conceal my love—how could I conceal it,

when the witnesses of passion and love within me expose me?

O my reproacher, leave me alone, and spare me counsel through reproach:

reproach increases passion, if you mean to counsel me.

I would not heed reproach, O my reproacher;

would a lover wasted away by passion accept advice?

So rest, and do not await the impossible, for whoever

hopes for the impossible lacks reason and discernment.

I forsook my very soul, distraught with love for him,

and my friend, my family, and my homeland.

And I sought to befriend the beasts of the wilderness,

and for him chose open wastes and desert over my dwelling.

I slaughtered sleep's phantom in my two eyes for him,

in devotion, like one offering sacrificial beasts and camels.

I watch the star throughout the night in sleeplessness,

and the star, out of pity for me, keeps vigil with me.

I beheld none among the stars, splendid as a lamp,

shining like the morning star, unconcealed;

I beheld no exalted one there, risen high in honor,

except Ali, father of its beautiful lamp.

Full moon of lofty deeds and sun of glory, in an eminence

joined to exaltation at the summit of might.

A nursling at the breast of eminence from the hour of his birth,

and eminence suckled him with the finest milk.

He was eminence's lion cub, called its native son,

and within it, the finest fosterling embraced by glory.

Exalted in person and rank upon the peaks of honor,

and in name and reputation, praiseworthy, good, and radiant;

exalted in vast prestige, with none to match him;

exalted in deeds proceeding along an even, upright path;

exalted in form, then character; among his virtues

is acting in accord with religious obligations and prescribed traditions.

The most glorious, most august, whose lordliness is renowned

in every land, such as al-Sham and Yemen;

the most fortunate lord, whose ascendant is blessed,

at the brow of fortune, felicity, and auspiciousness;

blessed in name, auspicious in omen,

possessing fortunes never seen in all time;

the accomplished, skilled, perceptive, peerless in intelligence

in every rare matter, adept and discerning;

penetrating in thought, with no hidden matter escaping him,

through his sound judgment, safeguarded from misjudgment;

master of the tongue, whose eloquence was fashioned

by the hand of rhetorical artistry in the costliest gold of speech;

articulate in speech, the spring of his wisdom overflowing;

the magic of eloquence shuns solecism through melody.

A sea of generosity, with no sea resembling him

in generosity, liberality, giving, and favors;

and cheerfulness rises like light above his forehead

when he gives, like moonlight amid dark clouds.

No companion of destitution came to seek his bounty

without being seen to depart rich after poverty.

Chaste of loincloth—how splendid chastity is in him!

It adorned him, and he became the finest, most poised man.

White of honor, free of flaw and stain,

and white of heart, free of hatred and rancor;

one whose qualities cannot be encompassed by counting:

indeed, not even a tenth of them can be contained in an eighth.

If a man were to swear that he has no equal,

he would keep his oath, neither breaking it nor lying.

The lion of al-Shara, the lion, the mighty lion, at whose

fame lions perish in the desert and on mountain peaks;

the knight, the hero, the exalted one, to whom confession was made

willingly by the forest's lions before him: their cowardice.

If he charges into war and battle on a battlefield,

he displays marvels with lance and against opponents.

If he challenges men to single combat, no opponent matches him,

and none has ever been a worthy match in war against him.

So any opponent who ignorantly challenges him

becomes dead, or bound in fetters.

When al-Darwish mounts the red horse, I say: ask

whether this lion has a home in the sky.

I see him making this steed his ladder,

seeking to ascend to it, full of high spirits.

How splendid this steed, ocean-like and solidly built!

Long of shank, long of neck and ear,

short in the pastern, as in his tailbone,

short-backed, noble in lineage, not base,

large of eye and nose, like his hoof,

lean-faced, without an equal among stallions,

and broad of forehead, as of belly and rump,

clad in beauty, intelligent and well fleshed.

And red of coat, but black in his mane,

as in his tail; his like has never been among horses.

White-blazed, his legs made lovely by white stockings,

auspicious of face, joined to the best of good fortune.

You see him restless when his rider mounts him,

yet upon his back the rider is like a drowsy, lovesick man.

He obeys spoken commands at a gallop and a slow pace;

but for speech, his rider would run him without a rein.

The wind does not outstrip him, even when it blows fiercely;

rather, he outstrips the wind at a gallop and in travel.

When he gallops, he places his hoof

only upon the wind, not the earth or rough ground.

If he traveled from Sana'a to Aden,

he would return at once to Sana'a from Aden.

And he has been suited to none but his rider,

the companion of lofty deeds, father of their beautiful lamp.

May the summit of lofty deeds ever be a height for them both to ascend,

and may they always remain the beauty of all time and the ages,

as long as lightning flashes and a collared dove sings

with beautiful, mellow song that dispels sorrow.