نظرت ولم أبغ إلا شفائي — Sardar

I looked, seeking nothing but my cure,

and treated one sickness with an incurable disease.

She appeared, her palm serving as her veil,

before an eye itself veiled in tears.

She thus became for us a temptation doubled

by the beauty of the veiled and the beauty of the veil.

She says, when I reproach her for being

far away: 'Does the sun dwell anywhere but the sky?'

Ever they capture, and never relinquish,

the hearts of men—the bodies of women.

I kept grieving at their departure,

until long estrangement taught me patience.

From the searing pangs of love, I

bend over as though over a spear's point.

I fast, though your water is not for drinking;

I seek your fire in darkness, though it is not for warmth.

Whoever thirsts is deceived by the mirage

and beguiled by a deceptive, rainless lightning-flash.

How wondrous our meeting, when reproach

made modesty's rose bloom upon her cheek.

Beauty had filled a pool there to the brim,

where thirsty eyes came to drink.

My gaze follows the wild winds,

hoping they may lift the tent's curtain.

Do you escape bodily upon riding-camels,

yet cast your heart away among gazelles?

I knew your composure was not easily swept away

by a faded trace and a deserted dwelling.

You turn away from dusky lips at al-Hima,

and shun dark-rimmed eyes at al-Jiwa.

Were it not for the treachery of my sideburns' color,

I would have sold love's attachment at a high price.

Many a night I trailed youth

through its folds, as I trail my cloak.

If I controlled my affairs, I would have bought

that darkness with this brightness.

They said: 'You have suffered the loss of youth;

yet none who has not gone gray has won long life.'

Glory grows nowhere but upon the backs

of swift she-camels shod in speed,

leaving behind me the abode of humiliation,

an encampment and lodging for the slow.

I flee with my honor from those you see,

from the jerboa's concealed exit to its main burrow entrance.

Though I am a master of verse, I am not

like one who solicits hospitality by howling.

May I be rid of folk who cannot distinguish

between a horse's neigh and a camel's bellow.

When the palms of the base shake my hand,

I slap with them the cheeks of hope.

Long ago I squeezed men's faces,

yet found among them no face with any moisture.

Were it not for al-Za'imi's august presence, no

promise would walk the paths of fulfillment.

But through Abu Qasim's generosity,

noble deeds flourished after their effacement.

In lofty deeds his lineage is that of the true-born,

while others are numbered among pretenders.

Radiant, through him noble deeds shine,

and the mouths of eminence smile to reveal him.

Eyes graze, whenever they behold

him, in the meadow of his radiance and beauty.

When you watch for his lightning, the valleys

shine like the throats of pools.

He belongs to a people stamped in generosity

with the die of rain-laden morning clouds.

He reckons buying a little praise

with lavish gifts to be a kind of alchemy.

His hands flow freely, without a milker,

while the churning of a milk-skin seeks its butter.

He sways when a request blows upon him,

as an arak tree sways in the north wind.

His generous deeds then become like riding-camels,

and his petitioner's voice like the camel-driver's chant.

Virtues fashioned from Mandal incense-wood,

with the incense of praise added to them.

Wine and the pure essence of clouds could almost

be pressed from their sweetness and purity.

As though the knee-bands, when tied

around him, were tied around Yadhbul or Hira.

He meets calamities, when they beset him,

with ample reach and a spacious breast,

and resolve like the wingbeats

of a hooked-beaked eagle plunging through the air.

You see him and behold resolve and prudence,

and forbearance, united in one vessel.

Nothing so captivates the eye as a man

who challenges his beholder with splendor.

Upon him are proofs drawn from himself, which have become

enough to dispense with witnesses on his behalf.

In the sword's luster, onlookers find

proof of its edge and cutting power.

Noble breeding may be known before the teeth are examined,

and victory judged before the race.

The riders have no desire—guided as they are by

your radiance—for a standard or banner.

May good be yours, speaker and doer,

who built the loftiest edifice of noble deeds.

You vowed, should you attain the summits of

affairs, never to be cloaked in arrogance.

Were your own fortune entrusted to you,

you would not raise it beyond this eminence.

In everything we have found disputation,

but no dispute among them concerning you.

ٌَ

Therefore my young she-camel yearned for

you, until she knelt in this courtyard.

But for you she would have been like a swing,

rocking between late morning and evening.

When this one's star reins her with its rays,

that one's sun halters her with dust.

Many an enemy have I in Baghdad,

questioning my stay in your abode.

I said: 'I stay, answering my desires,

and combining wealth with sufficiency,

beside a noble man, whose bucket in generosity

his hand follows along the rope.'

When his pens wade in ink,

they spare slender spears from wading in blood.

The chiefs summoned him as a leader,

and he was theirs in hardship and ease.

After trials they found

his character praiseworthy—and praise comes after testing.

May God water your house with the water of bliss,

and embroider it with gardens of splendor.

May cups of joy circle about you,

drawing from brimful, brimming vessels.

May you be blessed at Eid and Mihrajan,

their good fortune driving happiness to you.

We found that both have done what you love,

and what you seek through sincere prayer.