1. It is long past time for the stalling debtor to be pressed for payment,

    and for him to heal the one he made ill.

  2. Ask the one who made a pact with me in love

    with what he atoned when he turned away.

  3. He is full of rage, while my heart, because of him,

    is turned over in the embers of ghada wood.

  4. Cry out against yourself: this hatred

    is the reward of one who appoints an arbiter or delegates authority.

  5. Friend, do you see lightning over Jasim,

    as though it were an Indian sword being unsheathed?

  6. It reminded me of the days of Aqiq al-Hima,

    but memory does not restore what has already passed.

  7. It traveled by night with the dream-vision: this is for whoever

    stays awake, and the vision is for whoever closes his eyes.

  8. Even if it did not cause my sorrow, it stirred my longing;

    the fighter and the inciter are alike.

  9. By God, if its entrails harbored

    the secret of my own entrails, it would not have flashed.

  10. Greet a gazelle between whose eyelids

    are the spearheads of death and the sword of fate.

  11. An archer, though the Qara are not his forefathers,

    he buries the arrow whole without twanging a bowstring.

  12. Beware of meeting him without armor,

    fearing his two weapons: his anger and his favor.

  13. Opposites are not brought together—why, then, has the head

    joined the black and the white?

  14. As though my hair were a racecourse where they released

    black steeds and gray ones, racing over it,

  15. seeking to catch up with a man in the lead;

    every wing behind him has been shattered.

  16. His forefathers, before him, raised

    for him the tallest, broadest edifice.

  17. Clans whose endeavors were

    coverings for the earth and the filling of space.

  18. Since they dipped their fingertips into water,

    the water has never grown foul or mossy.

  19. If they trod rock with their feet,

    or their palms touched it, it would become a meadow.

  20. Neither the world nor religion has lacked, from

    their sons, ministerial or judicial service.

  21. No sooner do you see their pens fluttering

    than you see their swords menstruating.

  22. And whoever follows on their heels has kept

    rising until he found nowhere further to rise.

  23. His soil was good, so his branch grew;

    and whoever churns brings out the butter.

  24. He is master of learning, whether he wishes

    to graze on sweet herbage in its pasture or on salt plants.

  25. The quiver of the literary arts is in his palm;

    whenever he shoots its arrows, he hits the target.

  26. He understands a saying's meaning before it

    receives a nominative, accusative, or genitive ending.

  27. Go on, Abu Nasr—you are a man

    from whom Time never reclaims what it lent.

  28. You granted me affection, and I repaid it

    with thanks; the praiser is like one who repays.

  29. Its counterpart has pitched camp in my heart;

    since it fastened its tent ropes, it has never struck camp.

  30. Like the virtues in you, whose garments

    purity refuses to let be washed.

  31. And all that this love builds

    will never be undone by distance and separation.

  32. Bodily nearness is no help if

    the heart does not listen and nod in response.

  33. How many a distant one is enamored and affectionate,

    and a nearby one disparaging and hateful!

  34. Ornamented speech is of no avail when

    what was in the inward parts has been drained away.

  35. And if a sword is blunt, can

    gilding or silvering make it cut?

  36. I was told of a suspicion about me you had muttered;

    and whoever hints reaches the point of saying it outright.

  37. It passed as the breeze of the east wind passed,

    gently stirring the water of the pools.

  38. A jest that made me think ill of it—

    how soft the sword, and how it chokes!

  39. I could not tell whether a human was speaking it,

    or a snake of the rocky upland was flicking its tongue.

  40. But my hearing vomited out what he said,

    as though its mouth had been rinsed with bitter sap.

  41. My dear friend's reproach frightens me; yet

    the lion does not frighten me when it gnashes its fangs.

  42. And secrets dwell in my inward parts,

    where none is delivered prematurely or miscarried.

  43. Far from it! Falsehood is no adornment of my character,

    nor is the garb of treachery my attire.

  44. Nor is my milch-camel brimming with sorrow,

    nor are my full-term she-camels laboring with hopes.

  45. I acknowledge what is due before

    it is ordained as a friend's binding right.

  46. And how can I shun one who is the soul? If

    it leaves the body for an instant, the body dies.

  47. The fault is only Time's, which,

    if it clothes a person in a robe, strips it away.

  48. All its changing states have tossed me about,

    and not one of them is acceptable.

  49. Either walking on its scorching ground,

    or riding a restive, unbroken mare.

  50. Whoever has Time drawing water for him

    must drink whatever it has muddied.

  51. Roam in pursuit of livelihood, and you will obtain it;

    for the bucket is filled when it is shaken.

  52. The lions' hunger would last long if they passed their mornings

    and evenings lying in their thicket.

  53. I blame my days, although I

    do indeed praise God for what He has decreed.

Sol 6.1