1. To what destination do you urge the she-camels?

    If they pass beyond Najd, you are no lover.

  2. My weeping was only the camel-chanter

    of love's caravan, and my sighing its driver.

  3. Since they departed, I knew it was from them

    that I sought a lightning-flash high in the clouds.

  4. O raven, you have croaked over them;

    so croak for me along their tracks.

  5. Ask the suns whose laden camels pitched

    a pavilion for them from the vastness of separation:

  6. why they made our eyes places of sunset,

    and took their curtained chambers as places of sunrise.

  7. And how could their tents fail to guard them,

    when every gaze has come to them as a thief?

  8. They were adorned with pearls; I did not doubt that

    their mouths had been strung into necklaces.

  9. And their waists asked their fingers for gifts—

    rings to wear as girdles.

  10. You shot at the heart, and I thought that you

    would miss when shooting at something fluttering.

  11. It was not the first false conjecture;

    whoever resists the matter comes round to agree.

  12. The wound of the arrowheads, if you probe it,

    testifies that the arrow passed clean through.

  13. I restrain my tears, but they stray away,

    as though I were restraining a runaway slave.

  14. And, from avoiding the watcher, I thought myself

    on departure day a hypocrite in love.

  15. How many battles I have had in darkness,

    in which I captured the visiting phantom!

  16. When it came to me through the dust-cloud of darkness,

    it grappled with a knight in me, locked in embrace.

  17. The dwelling did not hold me back from seeking them,

    though it displayed a lovely prospect to the eye.

  18. If you see the rain revive its grass,

    you behold there a created being and a creator.

  19. It grows tresses on the heads of hills,

    for which summer's cheek becomes the shaver.

  20. So its ravines wrapped themselves in coverlets,

    and its plateaus girded themselves with cushions.

  21. And the doves sang among its branches,

    seeming in its boughs to be Mukhāriq.

  22. And the east wind blew from Najd; you would think it

    was splitting open a musk pod in its soil.

  23. So I saw the caravan only touching,

    or gazing, or listening, or inhaling scents.

  24. Away with an age that, when it entertains its guests,

    gives them the water of hopes, adulterating it.

  25. Excellence has gone unsold there; you see no

    precious article of excellence selling in its market.

  26. And it is a marvel that my tongue still speaks

    in an age that has silenced eloquent mouths.

  27. Most whom you put to the test among its people

    appear faithful to the creed of friendship.

  28. A people—baseness has dug around

    the sanctuary of their wealth its trenches.

  29. It is all the same whether I am presented as a neighing steed

    before them, or return as a braying ass.

  30. I sought from them a pledge upon my hand,

    but found none among them to clasp my palm,

  31. except Jamāl al-Dawla, who grants bounty,

    pledging that his gifts may be freely plundered.

  32. If his fingers ever withheld his kindness,

    they would be divorced from his hand.

  33. From envy the cloud kept weeping,

    with its rain, and sobbing with thunder.

  34. His noble nature taught him pages

    from the school of generosity, and he became skilled.

  35. Never before him have we seen, nor will you see

    after him, the promise of hopes prove true.

  36. If hopes are impregnated by his promise,

    before long you will see them ready to give birth.

  37. His noble deeds lodge him in a paradise

    where gratitude has planted gardens.

  38. Whoever lives speaks his praise,

    and whoever dies commits it to parchment.

  39. If you say, 'How fine are his qualities!'

    you say too, 'How noble is his character!'

  40. He repeats his noble deeds, drinking at noon

    from their cup, and drinking morning and evening.

  41. Praise is not beautiful when bestowed on another,

    nor do you see it fitting anyone but him.

  42. He blazed new paths along the roads to greatness,

    and added new ways within the bounds of bounty.

  43. His days are of two kinds: jousting, when he selects the

    men, the weapons, and the swift steeds;

  44. or hunting, for which he gathers his equipment—the

    cheetahs, hounds, and falcons.

  45. At times he strikes them down, mounted warriors;

    and at times he hunts them, young hares.

  46. Had war not delighted him, he would not

    have torn through the robe of battle-dust.

  47. Without him, the spearhead would not have thrust

    on battle day, nor would the sword have cleft.

  48. When warriors put on their coats of mail,

    daisies at first, he turns them into anemones.

  49. If he brandished staffs in his right hand,

    he would launch them, by his might, as thunderbolts.

  50. He owns no sword but an ignorant one,

    and readies no spear but a foolish one.

  51. If you wish to know what the two have done,

    ask the ribs and the crowns of heads.

  52. He pays no heed to enemies, now that

    he counts the wilderness wolves among his friends.

  53. If a matter grows difficult and they entrust it to him,

    he comes in second, while success comes first.

  54. Thus he has risen to a summit in the Imam's esteem,

    and occupies a lofty place in the king's regard.

  55. May the days never lower your rank,

    and may I never see you, through time, but foremost.

  56. May you endure as long as time endures, commanding,

    or forbidding, unseaming and mending.

Sol 6.1