Sol 6.1

  1. Bring me remembrance of Suʿad, she of the necklaces;

    For it is sweeter than the daughter of the grape-cluster.

  2. And recite remembrances of her to me in song;

    For they grow sweet with a warbling melody.

  3. Then repeat her story to a sorrowful man;

    For the sorrowful man's life lies in repetition.

  4. Alas for a lover overtaken by madness over her,

    And blind from so much sleeplessness.

  5. Woe to a tale-bearer who slandered a sorrowful man to her;

    She tormented him by banishing him utterly.

  6. What lovesick lover can live amid estrangement,

    And separation, coldness, and rejection?

  7. I am lovesick, slain by love for her;

    And one slain by passion is the best of martyrs.

  8. Indeed, I sink away from union with her,

    Yet toward coldness I rise.

  9. Would I had died before loving her;

    Would I had never been born.

  10. Indeed, if my suffering were laid upon iron,

    Even the hardest iron would have melted.

  11. The boulder pitied me when she shunned me;

    To me, she is harder than the boulder.

  12. A gazelle accustomed to flight, she gazes

    With glances accustomed to hunting lions.

  13. Whenever the rose glimpses her cheeks,

    Her cheeks bestow their rosy hue upon it.

  14. Her two cheeks bring forth radiant roses,

    While the garden of her breasts reveals pomegranates.

  15. If the Pleiades saw her neck, they would wish

    To become a necklace for that neck.

  16. She has a figure that sways even when upright,

    Like a supple branch when it bends.

  17. Wine dances coquettishly in her two flanks,

    When coquetry displays the dance of banners.

  18. God fashioned her wink through eyes;

    In it lie spells upon minds and the rending of livers.

  19. She slew me with an eye like a sword,

    Its sheath the eyelid, closed in sleep.

  20. Never before this have we seen a slaying

    Ever wrought with a sheathed blade.

  21. I hope for union with her soon;

    For in love it has not been far away.

  22. Many a night held union with her;

    To me, it was the most blessed of feasts.

  23. Then its stars shone and withdrew,

    Draped for eclipse in black mantles.

  24. She came to me, to a garden left lifeless,

    And spread over it the canopy of good fortune.

  25. And it grew radiant, then blossomed and displayed

    Every flower, like narcissi and roses.

  26. And it appeared, resplendent, like the Garden of Eternity—

    If only it were adorned with immortality.

  27. She kept me company at night, with no watcher to see us,

    Where every envious person had vanished from us.

  28. Then she said, 'Have you praised my beauty?'

    I said, 'For it I strung the costliest necklaces.'

  29. Then she said, 'Have you praised a reprover?'

    I said, 'What have I to do with my banished reprover?'

  30. Indeed, my praise of any but the noble is shameful;

    Indeed, praising the base is not right.

  31. Only through verse does praise become beautiful,

    If that verse appears in praise of Hamidi:

  32. Possessed of loftiness that no limit can reach,

    Of perfection that surpasses all bounds;

  33. Of noble dispositions in every deed

    Arising from his praiseworthy kindness;

  34. Unmatched among people in beautiful qualities,

    The jewel of glory, its well-strung necklace;

  35. The lion, the keen sword, the peerless one,

    The awe-inspiring, generous lord, the valiant champion;

  36. The Algerian man of letters, for whom one would give one's life,

    The discerning, refined, fortunate one.

  37. For he is a gallant man, namesake of the best of messengers;

    So let him be congratulated with abundant praise.

  38. Of handsome bearing, his fame has spread among us

    Like musk and ambergris, and then aloeswood.

  39. His nature is truthfulness in keeping promises,

    And glory's brother fulfills his promises.

  40. Do not marvel that he breaks his threats;

    For breaking threats is the way of the noble.

  41. With intelligence and discernment, then skill,

    He has been without a peer in his age.

  42. He donned glory and noble deeds as armor;

    Every honor lies within his ring-linked mail.

  43. He gained a nature like the breeze, yet sweeter;

    He robbed the garden of its rosy splendor.

  44. The ships of praise, after a deluge of generosity

    From his bounty, came to rest atop Judi.

  45. Whenever I have praised him in my verse,

    My verse says, 'Is there any more?'

  46. May there ever rise above the heaven of high attainments

    The constellations of honor, eminence, and good fortune,

  47. As long as he whom every glory serves appears,

    Never perishing, until the time of eternity;

  48. Or the neck of my verse is adorned with his praise,

    And through it singing grows sweet, like a chant.

Sol 6.1