1. Would that the spell-healer could dispel love,

    either through death or through recovery.

  2. Kissing the teeth and embracing the necks,

    if both are possible, are the ingredients of my antidote.

  3. O you who batter my hearing with reproach, and

    behind it lies a heart secured with locks.

  4. Who has enjoined repentance from a wine

    that the cupbearer presses from his glance?

  5. How many an archer upon the solitary sand-dune,

    whose arrows have no nocks!

  6. And a stature that would be deemed her own branch by the

    gray dove, were it clothed in leaves.

  7. And a gazelle that butts her hunter

    with leaflike locks of coal-black, curly hair.

  8. My breast is among her lairs, and among her meadows

    is my heart; among her pools is the corner of my eye.

  9. Held captive by guarded chastity within her bower,

    she rules over captivity and release.

  10. Through her beauty she forbids our eyelids

    from drawing together in a lowered gaze.

  11. As though the eyes, when she is brought forth

    from her bower, could no longer close.

  12. I disregarded what she had taken of my heart's blood,

    for fear she might remember what remained.

  13. And a night prolonged by estrangement—no

    yearning lover's striving could exhaust its span.

  14. My drink and my singing girls that night were

    my tears and collared gray doves,

  15. until dawn erased the blackness of deep night

    like a head of hair in a barber's hand.

  16. I said, while the spear-tips stood upright,

    watching me through blue pupils:

  17. I seek no truce in this, even if

    war rages there in all its fury.

  18. And from Nizam al-Mulk I have a shield,

    impregnable, with no protector like it.

  19. What an excellent refuge, should a predicament arise

    that night has enfolded and driven onward.

  20. The frightened man finds refuge in his protection,

    on the twin summits of pledge and covenant.

  21. Anger does not assail his forbearance,

    if the arch of a foot stumbles against a shin.

  22. Nor does pride sway his shoulders,

    though he ascends the mountain of eminence.

  23. His speech and handwriting provide an alternative

    to a keen, double-edged sword.

  24. A weapon like the lion's lies lodged

    in his palm or between his jaws.

  25. Bright-faced, the radiance of his light shames

    the full moon's face by its brilliance.

  26. Possessed of radiant, auspicious splendor,

    adorned by the brocade of his character.

  27. The cheerfulness he displays unties

    the tongue's knot in the awed man who meets him.

  28. His doors stand open to delegations,

    like the eyelids of lovers.

  29. His repeated outpourings win the stake outright,

    if the wagered prize is assigned to the front-runner.

  30. If the road to highest honor is made remote,

    upon it he is Amr ibn Barraq.

  31. Pale camels are only pale camels; but when they visit him,

    they become means of livelihood.

  32. How many, at his court, for praise and thanks, are the

    festivals held and the markets!

  33. He disdains to let his downpour rain

    anything but gold and silver.

  34. His first rain is a beaming smile, a promise

    he follows with a lavish downpour of bounty.

  35. And clouds do not grant you their bounty

    without thunder and lightning.

  36. Confidence in him is never disappointed, nor

    does one who hopes in him return in failure.

  37. The vicissitudes of time have become captives

    to al-Hasan, the noble chief, son of Ishaq.

  38. He has made wealth, despite his love of it,

    prey to destruction and spending.

  39. When the vicissitudes of time shake him,

    they find a heart that does not flutter.

  40. Commands filled with obedience by

    the people of provinces and far horizons,

  41. between Jayhun and Qali Qala,

    and between the Syrian and Iraqi reaches.

  42. And a resolve at which the breasts of spears

    tremble with fear and dread.

  43. Under its weight, the bows of the Turks begin

    to groan as they are drawn to their fullest.

  44. And the sword, under that resolve's demands upon its edge,

    lies hidden in the scabbards of necks.

  45. He has fortified the kingdom with his counsels

    on a steep-sided height, slippery to climb.

  46. Each day, in the lands of the enemy,

    a brimming bucket of blood is poured out by spear-thrusts.

  47. Such as the sons of al-Asfar, brought to ruin by

    a fearsome lord who fells every renegade.

  48. Whoever of them was felled was for the desert wolf;

    whoever escaped fled with remnants of life.

  49. In a battle where death was fed

    the souls of unbelievers and sinners.

  50. How many a severed hand upon the plain,

    and a head shattered in the ravine!

  51. The king of Rum tasted of its bitter sap

    what he had never tasted before.

  52. Though you may not have faced its champions,

    through your favor you were as one who had faced them.

  53. The sun's remoteness does not prevent it

    from fostering growth and burning.

  54. O Qiwam al-Din, hear the plea of a man

    whose tongue speaks without deceit.

  55. For God's sake, do not let your planting wither

    after it has borne fruit and put forth leaves.

  56. Through you its crooked branches grew straight,

    and it extended its roots into prosperity.

  57. And a born bondsman of yours, who has never sought

    from his servitude the relief of emancipation—

  58. since he left your dwelling, his entrails

    and heart have been a hearthstone of longings.

  59. What he gained in place of your glory was only like

    exchanging a sword for a cloth play-whip.

  60. The enviers used subtle arts in their sorcery,

    until they saw separation unsettle me.

  61. If my flight pleased them, afterward

    my countercharge and swift advance will dismay them.

  62. Before them, I had never feared

    the parting brought by a raven that did not croak.

  63. Who among them can reach my range, and who

    can bear my burdens, if made to carry them?

  64. I proclaimed your first kindness to me [reading uncertain];

    so confirm my words with a second bounty.

  65. Far be it from your favors and what they bestowed

    that I should wear the garments of destitution.

Sol 6.1