Sol 6.1

  1. She journeyed, a full moon within a cloud of veils,

    then, unlike the moon, settled in my eye and heart.

  2. My sickness and my streaming tears delighted her;

    did she take me, then, for the thread within the moist pearl?

  3. Guarded by her gaze, she holds my heart captive;

    the tips of Khatt's tawny spears serve for guarding and plundering.

  4. I bestowed upon her dwelling-places a wealth of tears,

    through which they needed no bounty from pouring rain.

  5. So all night I stirred their soil with my breaths,

    as though my heart had been lost from me in the dust.

  6. The crimson coursers of my tears raid there,

    and [before?] they lay in ambush among the meteors.

  7. It is strange that my heart and her traces are parched,

    while my two cheeks are fertile from the outpouring of two clouds.

  8. From tears of dew upon the cheek of its rose,

    adorning one in shade upon lovely greenery.

  9. My pupil thirsts, while my tears and its lashes

    are like a pool's cheek within a cheek-fringe of clouds.

  10. They have said that gray doves are mistresses of a wake;

    why, then, do the slender forms of boughs dance there?

  11. May God refresh the supple beloved, who settled like safety in my breast,

    then departed as a dream departs from the lashes.

  12. He guarded his saliva from us with his eye's glances,

    protecting sweet, clear water with a keen-edged sword.

  13. He made the cup's sun rise in the east of his palm,

    while the forenoon sun lay hidden in the west's wing.

  14. When we drank it, he guarded against night's onrush,

    and kindled longing's fire in the coal of my heart.

  15. The line of down on his cheek explained love's secret;

    surely writing makes the discerning understand.

  16. His weak eyelids have plundered my patience;

    marvel enough is that the broken can be strong enough to plunder.

  17. Beloved by his lovers, though he is a killer,

    his eye strikes dead, and his countenance awakens love.

  18. I have never seen another like me, veiling what he desires,

    though I have no fear of a tale-bearer concerning love.

  19. I condemn separation for his sake, yet if it

    kept away from al-Kindī, I would tell it, 'Enough for me.'

  20. No patience is like mine away from him: I ask the east wind for no

    wing, and take lightning in place of noble riding-camels.

  21. At his remembrance I keep pressing with my palm

    the throbbings of a heart thirsting for his sweet speech.

  22. It is as though my side held a Babylonian intoxication,

    making it sway, or the tremor of a lovesick wanderer.

  23. He is pure as the pure days of youth and wealth,

    and each of those two longs for him, even in nearness.

  24. Between us, through every day and night

    that pass, there is no obstructing sea, nor any road.

  25. He is my rescuer from ignorance's grasp, after

    I had lived unable to tell a first hemistich's final foot from a second's,

  26. and after I had amassed wealth and grown abundant hair,

    with no distinction, to me, between genitive and accusative.

  27. In nights when I had not spent the purest part of speech,

    nor tasted the delight of gain from its refinements,

  28. nor unveiled from it any slender beauty that mocked

    the lances' slim forms or inflamed the gazelle herd's eyes.

  29. His rhymes leave eyes astonished at them,

    staring, and ears with their veils lifted.

  30. Were it not for an obscurity that overtakes their words

    in his assembly, the ink would [turn white?] with wonder.

  31. They are chaste: no blush of obscenity mars their faces;

    and generous: no sword's hardness lies in their sides.

  32. The champions of verse took the lead, with time as their racecourse;

    they ran second, then came first upon their heels.

  33. They became comfort to the resident, and a gift for the

    festival, and provisions for destitute companions.

  34. God bless him! How swiftly his resolve journeys toward glory,

    how generous his hand in a year of deprivation and drought,

  35. how near he is to petitioners in knowledge and bounty,

    how far his honor stands from reproach and abuse!

  36. The East has pride and might, since it reared him,

    as a beauty preens in robes of striped cloth.

  37. Some people marveled that it had brought forth his like,

    though it is no wonder, being the rising-place of bright stars.

  38. A master of the pen: whenever his fingers unsheathe it,

    it comes to need a keen, cutting blade.

  39. The night-visitor of blessings journeyed through the night of his ink,

    and ranged at length over the earth's rugged ground and plains.

  40. A spring of meanings sweeter than slumber

    to an eye, and sweeter than reproach in union.

  41. His benevolence is white in every crisis

    of time, when the days are wolf-black.

  42. An eloquence of excellence that makes the sun jealous,

    when it lights calamity's dark wing;

  43. and generosity that shows you the day green and ripe,

    though the years have gone about in ash-gray robes,

  44. at a time when drought holds back the rain's tears,

    and the crosswind's hand strips the clouds' cloaks,

  45. and in every level waste the earth's face is slapped

    by the palms of swift camels, while it lies bare of fertility.

  46. He belongs to people who settled in lowlands and highlands,

    like morning rains in hollows among the hills.

  47. When petitioners travel by night in the light of their fire,

    they pass through a stretch of night along a broad, clear road.

  48. And if it is said, 'This is one of his tribe,'

    the faces of fresh dates beam with glad tidings at his name.

  49. If the udder's milk dwindles and the soil grows pale,

    and hunger spreads, they single out the hocks for milking.

  50. They straightened Islam's crooked spear-shaft

    through holy struggle, and checked the might of non-Arabs and Arabs,

  51. with the whiteness their bright swords brought to guidance's face,

    and the blackness their dust cast upon war's faces.

  52. They bestow green coats of mail, hung

    upon red riding-camels and finely formed, lean steeds.

  53. They compose verse and prose: in battle

    and in peace they are knights of battalions and books.

  54. One speaks decisively, another gives bounty,

    another kills with the blade, another forgives a scar.

  55. You dwell in the innermost parts of all kingdoms,

    as a breast's curves enclose the heart's membrane.

  56. He granted safety from fear and brought nearness after separation,

    bestowed riches after want, and calmed turmoil.

  57. He is love's evening talk in every town,

    the solace of the distressed and the sweet basil of the drinking company.

  58. When night travelers frown, his gifts arrive

    smiling, as though from Qays of Generosity or Kaʿb.

  59. His overflowing breast surpassed his brother, the sea,

    and its flanks showed the restless flutter of mourning robes,

  60. with sweeter knowledge—Zayd al-Khayr, lord of Kindah—

    like his fathers before him in ages past.

  61. Those are the moons of exalted rank, and its stars:

    one falls, and another follows in succession.

  62. I marvel at separation's haste: how did it kindle

    with my tears the fires of yearning and anguish?

  63. And how did it open, among my ribs, to sorrow

    a guarded sanctuary, and soften my mighty resolves?

  64. I have tasted longing's sweetness for you, and its bitterness,

    and been suckled amid love's torments, mild and harsh.

  65. What, then, are the thirsty one's burning thirst and love's frenzy,

    the sufferer's groan and an age-mate's infatuation?

  66. My lovely, supple maidens have been left unmarried,

    and through your bounty have come to dwell far from calamity.

  67. I am indeed in need of you, in poverty and want,

    though my wealth is envied and my valley fertile.

Sol 6.1