لنا بسمر الحمى في الحي أسمار — Abn Alsaati

We share evening tales in the camp with the protected grounds’ dusky beauties;

and dangers lie before that swaying bān.

Swaying forms, bearing full moons as their fruit,

in beauty—though the bān’s branches bear no fruit.

Veiled women, yet rending the veil of night;

they never rent the night save as moons.

They visit every lover in a mantle of darkness,

while the full moon journeys through deepest darkness.

If those whose good sense departed on the day of parting

were unjust, then is this al-Jarʿāʾ, O neighbor?

Ruins at Kāẓima stirred my longing,

and traces of Lamyāʾ made my tears fall like dew.

The valley bend is no longer mine, since their mounts have departed

from it; nor is their dwelling of yesterday a home for me.

Love-longing suffices me; I do not turn toward a ruined campsite.

And in love-longing, lovers have their excuses.

Had they soothed me, or visited me with their promise,

some burdens of longing would have grown lighter for me.

And I had hoped for sleep after they left;

but sleep, like patience—indeed, like graceful women—is treacherous.

I think they bewitched my morning, so it remained darkness;

such a sorcerer of dawns is love.

They turned away and wronged me—yet how sweet their deeds

are to the lover, though they turn away and act unjustly.

They drew near; remembrance did not bring them near, whatever they claimed,

and the farthest people are those whom remembrance brings near.

Neighbors of my heart, whether they settle or depart,

and its inhabitants when the dwelling stands deserted.

Among them, and among the desert’s robes, embroidered

and woven by March, maker of seasonal rains,

are radiant beauties, and flourishing, dew-fresh blossoms.

And, if I wish, I call them lights and flowers.

Tell my heart of patience [reading uncertain]; it disowns it,

for the breeze bears news of sorrows.

A fragrance from it makes me jealous, though it is not its own;

their perfume spread through it, and so it is richly fragrant.

O you whose cheek’s dyer stirred within my heart:

burning passion—though I had known my heart to be steadfast.

My blood gleams on your cheeks, bearing witness,

while your eyelids and glances deny it.

It feeds my tears and my fire whenever it dies down [reading uncertain]:

a cheek where water and fire have met.

Upon it are traces of deadly violence; every blood shed

goes unavenged, and no victim there has vengeance.

Your apparition never feared to approach my eyelid

except when my eyelid, as you have learned, was a torrent.

Longing is the fire within the entrails; it is kindled

by tears pouring like the generosity of Ṣafī al-Dīn.

One whose fragrance and bounty spread everywhere: whoever approaches

his abundant blessings seeks perfume and gathers honey.

And a giver of wealth, in whom lies what diminishes it,

and a man whose renown flies across the horizons.

His wealth journeys away from him through his giving,

and around him the faces of praise shine bright.

He has attained the furthest station in sovereignty,

as though sovereignty were a heart and he its secrets.

It rests in his hands, uplifted by his resolve;

should it be frightened, he is its rampart and its warrior.

Through his counsel, its signs came true in victory,

and the army of hopes charged, a mighty host.

His pens mock the swords of India,

and his pardon forgives even the gravest sin.

For delegations [reading uncertain], from him, though their homes are far,

and time is barren, come homes and fulfilled desires.

He has a heart, a sweet watering-place for his petitioner,

and in calamities, he brings people in and leads them out.

Companion of generosity: neither blame nor stinginess;

scion of the noble, who neither finds fault nor envies.

You see him raise the standing of petitioners, just as

his hands’ assaults upon his enemies are decrees of fate.

Unique: he has no equal to vie with him,

though noble virtues have counterparts and peers.

Some raced him in glory, but he outstripped them,

and legs and eyes were cut short before reaching him.

A noble man: he gives when they withhold, and guides if

they stray, and judges justly if they act unjustly.

The rebellious nights obeyed the command of a man of the pen,

who humbled the shifts of nights, tyrannical though they are.

His letters are battalions whenever he dispatches them;

their troops, in pursuit of the task, are lines of script.

Their blows [reading uncertain] are thunderbolts against his enemies,

and rain and showers upon seekers of his bounty.

His downpour revives poverty and puts stinginess to death;

so in him people find appointed deaths and lifespans.

From a people [reading uncertain] who built glory, then died,

and sweet became the tales told of them.

No calamity proved too hard for them, owing to their might—

from them; nor was anyone abased and forsaken [wording incomplete].

And the paths of glory were made easy through them [phrase unclear];

but if an envier seeks them, they are rugged ways.

In drought, terror, and darkness, we are sheltered

by their rains, lions, and moons.

From Abū al-Fatḥ Naṣr I have gained high standing [wording unclear];

and what an honor—victory and helpers!

Wide awake, he grows drunk when I rise to praise him;

so praise is a wine-seller to the generous.

He sways with the delight of one moved by its melody,

like a lover stirred by strings.

O generous buyer of poetry at a precious price,

without you poetry would have no price.

You clothed your delegation in fresh robes of wealth,

after an age had passed when they were rags.

Whenever calamity befell me, you were my victory,

and it fell, its fang and claws of no avail.

By your name I emerged from obscurity’s prison—and how much

concealment had been my lot beneath time’s workings!

So a sword has might in the fingertips of a man of

might—and in the weakling’s palm [line incomplete].

May you never cease bestowing lavish gifts, pure and unclouded,

and may the serenity of one who denies your favors turn to trouble.

From every foul utterance you fast—yes—and yours is

a breaking of the fast on sweet praise and gratitude.