1. Longing remained after them, while they departed.

    So my body and the dwellings are allied with sickness.

  2. I lost my patience even while the tribe was near;

    how, then, can I have it when the meeting-place lies far away?

  3. I have a heart that rejoices; Najd is its love,

    and long ago al-Hiyar used to delight it.

  4. It longed for its inhabitants, though they were distant,

    and wishes had not helped even when they were neighbors.

  5. I guarded against love—or could that avail?

    Can caution save one from fate?

  6. They withdrew far from my eyelids, which are water,

    yet they have settled in my heart, which is fire.

  7. I had no need of mankind, except for them;

    for I am beset by intense need and want.

  8. Indeed, by the sacrificial camels led forth on the day of Jamʿ,

    and by Him in obedience to whom the pebbles are thrown,

  9. and by Mecca, al-Hatim, and its inhabitants,

    they have passed judgment on my weakness and dealt unjustly.

  10. From them I have bewildered longing and sorrow,

    while with them lie my calm and repose.

  11. I roam toward Zarud in love and longing,

    though somewhere other than Zarud is my homeland and abode.

  12. Separation and despair keep it far from me,

    while wishes and remembrance bring it near.

  13. An apparition brings comfort through nights

    long with anguish, to eyelids whose sleep is brief.

  14. Whenever sleep visits, the phantom turns away, vexed

    with me, as though jealous of sleep.

  15. What have I to do with separation, which sanctions [my killing],

    though it has no blood-feud against lovers?

  16. How could calamity wrong me, when before me stand

    Ali, the mounts, and the deserts?

  17. A brave man whose pierced victim never recovers,

    and a champion whose protected honor is never violated.

  18. When he attends a battle, though it is dire,

    he proclaims his byname while the calls there are whispers.

  19. And if it slackens, he renews it with an army

    and a steadfast heart that cannot be shaken.

  20. If his blades are drawn amid an army,

    they are fire, and heads are sparks.

  21. He gives his own life; poverty is the generous man's lot,

    in his firm conviction, for stinginess is disgrace.

  22. He rises as a full moon in war's darkness,

    radiant, not hidden by the moon's dark phase.

  23. Its stars are spearheads, gleaming

    with radiance, and their sky is the stirred-up dust.

  24. A noble steed: [if] a rival runs beside him,

    he turns him back, the rival's eyes filled with dust.

  25. They did not name him Sword of the Faith until

    he advanced, leaving his namesake bewildered by him;

  26. and until he was drawn while the dusty earth was dry,

    then sheathed while blood surged like seas.

  27. He gave the Samhari spears drink again; intoxicated,

    they swayed, with blood their wine.

  28. When India's swords sang, round went

    cups, forever passed around in joy.

  29. He gave them their fill of drink in a barren year,

    and they emerged with heads as their fruit.

  30. He made his white blades bed the black forms of death,

    whose waistcloths had never been loosened.

  31. He bared them while dust's robe hung full,

    so night moved on accompanied by day.

  32. He is of the people who, when rain withholds,

    bestow gifts, or light up an age grown dark.

  33. When death blows, they are mountains;

    and when the earth despairs, they are seas.

  34. Their cavalry raided east and west,

    until the world had no course left for them.

  35. When they set out at dawn, the horizon's sun riding behind them,

    they sped, their raiding course beyond reach.

  36. They thirst for enemies and exhaust

    the watering places, yet remain thirsty and burning.

  37. O son of those who raced ahead to lofty deeds,

    and of those whose glory towers over the world!

  38. When asked, they offer generosity and apology;

    when angered, forbearance and power.

  39. When rain withholds, they are springtime;

    when mankind goes astray, they are a beacon.

  40. I have bestowed on you, apart from all people on earth,

    gentle beauties that shy away from them—

  41. wayward verses I guarded from them, making them precious;

    but for safekeeping, pure gold would not be precious.

  42. They hide, with perfume as their breeze,

    and appear, with morning as their veil.

  43. Whenever the envious seek them, they declare

    the long spears jousting against them to be short.

  44. I see the days deny my excellence its due,

    though morning's light cannot be hidden.

  45. Fortunes from the sons of eminence are barren,

    and—how strange!—hopes are camels heavy with young.

  46. I shall attain what I seek after hardship;

    even a swift horse is overtaken by stumbling.

  47. I do not complain [to them] of straitened living;

    but for excellence, the nightingale would not be caged.

  48. The garden's mouths did not smile until

    the copious [rain clouds] wept for their sake.

  49. The bride of poetry has not attained her due,

    even were the stars scattered as bridal gifts for her.

  50. And how could she, now that in her two palms there is

    a sword whose cutting edge can never be blunted?

  51. Dignified, while hearts reel in agitation,

    like the mountain, whose nature is dignity.

  52. You are the raincloud whose bounty is begged;

    if it withholds, it has no excuse.

  53. If I excel in praising any creature,

    it is borrowed from you and your qualities.

  54. When verse and its speakers fall short,

    even its elaboration is nothing but brevity.

  55. You are a necklace for the neck of this age,

    and a bracelet for the wrist of the world.

Sol 6.1