Sol 6

  1. Bring back her mounts, which drove sleep away;

    And take sleep from the pearls of my eyelids.

  2. Leave al-Aqiq alone: what flowed from my eye

    Flowed only to tell its inhabitants what happened.

  3. Suad thought the mountain pass would keep her phantom

    From me when imagination sought my eyes.

  4. So she settled in the land of Iraq and left

    My bewildered imagination behind in Syria.

  5. By God, if sleep returned, it would cross the open lands and never

    Fear the deserts, hills, or seas.

  6. It would spend the night at my command, while I embraced

    The gazelle within it, adorned with necklace and bracelets.

  7. Lord, what can I do with a fire of longing

    That pouring tears only make burn hotter?

  8. And with a gazelle whose veil hid her radiance

    From me, until that black veil turned red?

  9. She slays the lions among men with a slender shaft

    For which her dark-eyed glances serve as spearpoints.

  10. My sight became a Magian worshipping her cheek,

    But through its tears it became Christian.

  11. She surrendered her eyes to sleep, while to my eyes

    She surrendered only a rain-filled cloud.

  12. God help me, you whose marble-white breast

    I beg for relief: your coldness has made my life bitter.

  13. Do not praise bitter patience to one distraught

    Who tasted your sweet saliva and came to love sweetness.

  14. Describe to him a red rose from the garden of your cheek,

    Bearing amber from the down upon it.

  15. For if the mere phantom of that rose returned to a

    Blind dead man, he would live again and see.

  16. How long will your heart stay hard toward a lover

    Whose moans made even stones soften and split?

  17. Is every woman with a supple waist hard-hearted,

    Fiercely withholding her lips?

  18. Or are you alone, Suad, a gazelle

    That leaves its infatuated lover in the dust?

  19. The yellowing myrtle made eyes weep,

    As did the rose when it turned as yellow as your lover.

  20. They mourned the parting from our splendid night,

    Which was brief, though such a night deserves to be brief.

  21. How beautiful it was, when your face shamed the

    Bright moon and made the lights shine clearer.

  22. The physician was baffled by a lover who, whenever

    His sobbing recalled his passion, denied it.

  23. Shall I confide in him, so he may prescribe a drop

    From your mouth, surpassing everything ever distilled?

  24. And the scent of a neck God endowed with beauty

    And our lord the emir adorned with jewels.

  25. He is the noble protector who rules over people,

    Whom the Merciful fashioned with the finest judgment:

  26. With generosity, towering glory, and openhandedness,

    Eloquence, piety, and a luminous mind.

  27. Without his bounty, the people of Syria would have drunk

    A bitter, abhorrent draught.

  28. And the wisdom whose verses housed eloquence

    Would have gone unsold and unvalued.

  29. Those were days when its rich and poor alike

    Sought the fires of hospitality.

  30. The widows of its communities received

    Only prayers from towns and villages.

  31. People rushed into war, provisioned with

    Fearful hearts and the bitter fruit of failed efforts.

  32. A brave man was one who made flight his steed

    And escaped, saying, “The prey is inside the wild ass.”

  33. The shirt of every fighter and striker

    Was pierced by spears only from behind.

  34. And money was gathered by those entrusted

    To collect it, only to become a gathering of wine.

  35. It glowed and bloomed in cups as though it were

    A bride’s cheek, flushed and perfumed.

  36. God is great! How often I saw a knight’s

    Fine horse going backward.

  37. And houses whose doors were shut

    Only to turn away a petitioner in disguise.

  38. Except the refuge of the valiant Abd al-Qadir,

    Son of the valiant Muhyi al-Din; may he live long:

  39. Giver of thousands in yellow gold,

    And giver of red death to thousands.

  40. He restored to the people of Kinanah and the bright hills

    A green and flourishing life.

  41. At his door we used to glimpse

    Food, rubies, and richly fragrant musk.

  42. He is the one whose hours and gifts

    Are spent on war, worship, and hospitality.

  43. Noblest of all in lineage and birth,

    Most generous in kindness and fairest in appearance;

  44. Strongest in protecting a neighbor and guarding a sanctuary,

    Most like a welcoming fire, and loftiest in rank.

  45. Pure of cloak and great of ash, noblest of those

    Beneath heaven and kindest of those above earth.

  46. Generosity is modestly related of Hatim,

    But his generosity makes rain and seas seem small.

  47. He is counted among the rulers of the age; I would not count

    Alexander as a servant to one of his servants.

  48. The very breath of battle is dearer to him than the fragrance of a

    Young, full-breasted maiden, or an embrace with sleep.

  49. For battle he mounts a horse’s back, and when

    Peace rises, he mounts the pulpit.

  50. I rejoiced, and the delegations rejoiced at his giving,

    Until I thought generosity itself had become intoxicating.

  51. Then, when their faces brightened before him,

    I knew his bounty gave them water from al-Kawthar.

  52. How noble a ruler he is: when he declares God’s greatness,

    He leaves skulls as dust for the horses.

  53. And when he tells a tale, his companion imagines his words

    Are the hand that has scattered jewels over him.

  54. He joined prayer to gifts with a firm

    Bond, so that wealth lay with its ties undone.

  55. He summoned delegations; I was the happiest to come,

    Reap the fruits of his generosity, and give thanks.

  56. Blessed be God, who made generosity

    In his hands a fruitful garden for humans and jinn.

  57. O best of those who pray, fast, and proclaim God’s greatness,

    And noblest of those who take up a pen and write:

  58. To confine your skill to the pen is impossible;

    Your qualities are too exalted to count or contain.

  59. My inability to number your merits is plain;

    Forgive one who counted the stars yet fell short.

  60. By your standing, an oath-taker would not break his oath

    In swearing by God that you are the finest being seen.

  61. If someone claimed, and swore, that he

    Matched you in the race of generosity, he would be condemned.

  62. The fast has departed, leaving you its reward,

    And the festival arrives bearing gladness.

  63. So break your fast, and relieve my bitter envy

    By accepting my many poems.

  64. Live safely, gathering virtues from every quarter,

    And greet each coming festival as a radiant festival.

  65. May God, for the sake of the Seal of His messengers, grant

    You purity and the lifespans of all mankind.

Sol 6