Sol 5.6

  1. She unveiled her beauty to the cupbearer,

    and passion gave him the poisons of her eyes to drink.

  2. He cried out among us and began plying the cup,

    drawing from her saliva the antidote.

  3. He took us for wanton revelers, then strutted

    before us with his streaming tears.

  4. Bring it here, you newly pledged to youthful passion,

    and let me drink it upon cheeks spotless and pure:

  5. from a maiden like a gazelle of the sands,

    playful, full-hipped, and lavish;

  6. with tresses like the night of separation

    above a brow like the day of reunion;

  7. and a figure swaying as the bough bends in the wind,

    its fruit sweet, its embrace delectable.

  8. Her anklets distracted us from her wine,

    and we grew drunk on her Ishaqian melody.

  9. We had no need of gardens, with the wild rose

    of her radiance and the narcissus of her eyes;

  10. with a neck encircled in perfection,

    and pearls wondrous in their brilliance.

  11. It seemed the stars had fallen prostrate before her

    on the Night of Power, from the highest heavens.

  12. Her twin Farqad stars settled upon her breast,

    and all the other radiant stars upon her neck.

  13. What a night! While it lasted, the guard paid no heed

    to us, and the eye of good fortune awoke.

  14. Through her my heart was freed of troubles

    when her clear wine became my pavilion.

  15. A bower-bred maiden shortened that night's length,

    though often she had lengthened my nights of separation.

  16. That night was ennobled when it came beside praise of the Bey,

    and so became noble in character:

  17. generous and faithful in hardship and ease,

    in joy and in fear;

  18. the most eloquent of men after him who exalted the language of Ḍād,

    and the most generous of all creation, without exception;

  19. a lord who vanquishes the brave, yet

    shies from a girdled maiden's veil.

  20. White blades and noble deeds spring from him,

    surpassing every bound in destruction and largesse.

  21. He satiates carrion birds with his enemies' hearts,

    and keen sword-edges with their necks.

  22. God indeed fashioned him righteous, to exalt

    high honor and humble the hypocrites.

  23. Many a night he spread daylight over

    with the keenest, many-edged, lightning-bright blade;

  24. and many a day he clothed in long night

    with the dust of lean, pedigreed mares.

  25. He drove back ʿUqayl's cavalry, bewildered in the fray,

    imagining the earth a ring like the sockets of the eyes.

  26. The horses' neighing overwhelmed them like thunder,

    and the white swords like lightning.

  27. They left all they possessed to him and withdrew;

    they had no protector but his pardon.

  28. Thus acts the brave man; and the noble

    falcon spares the moths of the streams.

  29. May you endure, most generous of men, a surging sea,

    lionlike as Haydar, ever bestowing sustenance;

  30. and may you remain forever devout and pure,

    abundant in honor, pure in lineage—

  31. so long as the garden nightingales sing and increase

    their lament—the nightingales of longing;

  32. and a young, untried lover yearns for the morning draught

    as she unveils her beauty to the cupbearer.

Sol 5.6