Sol 5.6

  1. Ever since I pitched my dwelling at al-Khaḍrāʾ,

    I have valued Darius’s crown at no more than my sandal-thong.

  2. I imagined heaven itself to be my station there,

    for I had settled beside the stars as their neighbor.

  3. Whenever I reflected upon my peers,

    I saw the greatest among them dwindle into insignificance.

  4. It was as though God had cast all lofty virtues in a mold,

    then refined from them their glory as pure gold.

  5. They named it al-Khaḍrāʾ—“the Green”—only

    because it was an orbit for their stars.

  6. Our dwelling lay beside an azure, Kawthar-like stream,

    within an azure abode beyond all rivalry.

  7. For its pool we donned coats of mail,

    and unsheathed its rivulets as blades.

  8. On a day—had Abū Firās been there

    to witness it, its delight would have made him forget al-Nawwār.

  9. And on a night—had al-Kusaʿī shot there,

    he would have seen from his bow a long-hidden secret.

  10. And a garden whose prospect brought delight—or else

    why did the doves cast off their bridles there?

  11. The dove rose upon its pulpits like an orator

    and stirred a dialogue among the boughs.

  12. He traded songs with them; they listened intently,

    then swayed their bending forms, bewildered.

  13. And if the breeze passed through it gently,

    its drunken boughs strained to rise in greeting.

  14. And a mountain—if its two shoulders jostled

    the ordered chain of stars, that chain would scatter utterly.

  15. It towered, and the radiant stars yearned toward it,

    but it lowered its head in scorn.

  16. Majesty itself rose proudly within it; yet

    the dignity of its people taught it dignity.

  17. Those are a clan who conquered the nights

    and compelled them, unwilling, beneath their rule.

  18. And there rose, fully equal to the burden of their glory,

    one who scaled the heights as thoroughly as he swept the lowlands:

  19. Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥassūn—the man before whom

    even the radiant stars cannot keep pace through his dust.

  20. Young in years, yet an elder in lofty deeds—

    a youth who exposed the supposedly great as counterfeit.

  21. No wonder at his lordly eminence while still young:

    for mares bring forth noble foals.

  22. And indeed the arrow, though the slenderest of things,

    outstrips the spear in speed and the first rush.

Sol 5.6