1. I do not excuse a man who falls in love while free to choose.

    Love gathers within itself both shame and fire.

  2. Its shame is the reproachers' folly when they speak abusively,

    and its fire is burning anguish when the dwelling lies far away.

  3. Without my eye's divination, my liver would not have known

    that the veil is a cloud containing moons.

  4. Her face's whiteness and redness inspire love,

    as a silver dirham and a gold dinar delight you.

  5. Tell me more of Nu'man and its dweller;

    talk of loved ones makes for nighttime tales.

  6. How lovely the meadow of al-Ahwa! When hidden

    from me, smiling mouths are mirrored in its blossoms.

  7. And how lovely the ben-trees, boughs so noble that

    they bear no fruit but gray doves.

  8. You remained bent on reproaching a man with two eyes,

    yet Bashshar had practiced love before him.

  9. The reproacher has objections and harsh rebukes,

    and reproach has its answers and excuses.

  10. May no tawny gazelles appear after them, nor

    birds sway upon the green boughs.

  11. It was as though, on the day at Salmanayn, there had fastened

    upon me the fangs and claws of Usama, the lion.

  12. I search the wind for you whenever there wafts

    from the direction of your land a heavily perfumed crosswind.

  13. I ask the caravan for news, but it withholds it from me,

    as though you were secrets in the people's breasts.

  14. Even your phantom appeared beside me to suggest

    nearness, though deserts and dangers lie between us.

  15. No abode keeps you settled, as though Ala—

    al-Din were seeking blood-revenge among your clan.

  16. He is the one who, if he reserved a pasture, would let

    Time's herds graze nowhere but where he chooses.

  17. And if the boughs dwelt beside him, never would pass

    over them the south wind, though it is a raider.

  18. Every deed of high distinction is recounted of him,

    captivating hearts, and stories are told about him.

  19. You have exalted one with a noble deed in glory;

    yet where is he beside one with lasting achievements in glory?

  20. Wherever he settles, that valley is a haven of pasture and plenty,

    and every day he is greeted is a chosen day.

  21. Were it not for his hands' pledge to quench his world's thirst,

    the clouds would come to draw provisions from his palms.

  22. He meets petitioners with cheerfulness that distracts them

    from asking; and the rain-stars have their gleams.

  23. His distinction in giving is that his palm

    is a nail binding petitioners to bounty.

  24. A man of hopes comes before him humbled by them,

    and turns away, admiring his own sides.

  25. He has fulfilled all hopes: horses no longer need carved

    saddles, nor do pale camels need saddle-frames.

  26. No one plunders praise from his battalions but

    guests and visitors, on the day of raids.

  27. When hospitality slaughters the calf's mother for him,

    you see him slaughtering hopes.

  28. God bless the man in life's first bloom! His resolve

    has allies in martial might and good fortune.

  29. Trust in victory whenever he dons a full coat of mail

    whose rivets and clasps are the Pleiades.

  30. No secret thought hides from his inner mind,

    as though his surmise were a sounding-line into the unseen.

  31. He is one of mankind, yet surpasses them in generosity;

    so too pearls and pebbles are both stones.

  32. With what judgment does Abu Nasr tug against him

    at the rope of opposition? Some unraveling only twists it tighter.

  33. Has he not seen the thicket's lion gathering himself

    to spring, and the prized camel-stallion of the old she-camels bellowing?

  34. Nor is there blame on one who bears down with his chest,

    after due notice and warning have been given.

  35. You first approached him with a smile, which he took for weakness;

    so he was deceived—the morning star is deceptive.

  36. Now that war has bared her leg and cast aside

    her veil, while the horsemen are unseasoned,

  37. he has begun stroking Death's sides in remorse.

    But how can a leg rise when its marrow is thin and watery?

  38. Foolishly he exposes his ships to the fires of battle,

    and fire feeds on wood and pitch.

  39. If he wears the ancient reedbeds as armor,

    the lion amid the thicket's reeds strikes terror.

  40. Or if he trusts in the waters at flood,

    a torrent from his two palms runs across the plain.

  41. When a year-old mosquito sings to him,

    strings sing in the bows of the Turks.

  42. Fulfill the pledges of resolve that you have guaranteed,

    and let neither an irdabb nor a qintar deter you.

  43. For wealth is but a soul you destroy,

    while renown travels through Time's wildernesses.

  44. Do not leave an opportunity that appears as a ladder

    to your eminence, for Time has changing phases.

  45. Nor did the day of Mihragan put itself forward for it

    except with good fortune directing arrivals and departures.

  46. When it saw you, it resolved on a vow it would fulfill,

    until it reached you, with the fasting month its racecourse.

  47. We have brought its finely adorned gifts in bridal procession,

    as though they were short necklaces around the necks of Glory.

  48. I do not cheapen my words for anyone bidding for them,

    except for you; poems have their prices.

Sol 6.1