Sol 6.1

  1. And a soft-voiced, languid-eyed, graceful one

    Wears his glances and my blood about his neck.

  2. Drunk on the conceit of youth,

    Sober, yet he caroused with his eyelids.

  3. At their languor, tears flowed

    Down within it, or a sigh rose.

  4. I became attached to one of Turkish lineage;

    My mind grew dull over him.

  5. His temple-locks and his brow—

    Night born upon a morning.

  6. Let your gaze wander between them,

    For beauty there is white and black.

  7. And in himself he shows you the moon, full and

    Rising, and the gazelle, long-necked,

  8. Swaying—for a branch is at its fairest

    When it sways.

  9. My body would not have melted away

    Had I a heart that could endure.

  10. And in my heart's blood are two things, whose union

    For him has scattered my tears:

  11. A rose that opened in the gardens of

    Beauty, or an arrow aimed true.

  12. He is a paradise; my chaste passion

    And sickness are immortal there.

  13. As though I sought in him

    A Farqad star, or a wild calf's mother.

  14. He stole sleep from every

    Eye looking at him with a grief-darkened gaze.

  15. That is why his eyelids

    Are drowsy, while his lover lies sleepless.

  16. And he whitened night's darkness by drawing

    Near, and blackened morning by staying away.

  17. Without him, there would be no unrestrained

    Tears of mine, nor would my heart be bound.

  18. Night is the appointed time for union with him,

    And departure comes with the renewed morning.

  19. The star appears in the darkness,

    And Najm al-Din's rising is everlasting.

  20. I truly marvel at him: well-peopled

    Are his dwellings, though he is without peer.

  21. The vizierate, from all its

    Sides, finds a refuge firmly established.

  22. And the spear's flank dances,

    And the sword has a rose-red cheek.

  23. And he is the cloud, pouring the water of

    Beauty from a mind aflame.

  24. If asked, he gives; and if he speaks

    Where others fall silent, he excels.

  25. Disdaining recycled meaning

    And the ugliness of repeated wording.

  26. God, what a tamer of the headstrong,

    And restorer of lordship's unity!

  27. As though the words of a request to his

    Ear were Ma'bad's melodies.

  28. You set the king's affairs right when

    The man who had caused ruin plotted against him.

  29. And you accomplished with pens what

    The helmeted and the mail-clad accomplished,

  30. Or a ruddy one, the gold of radiance

    Embodied along his flanks.

  31. Each a valiant man upon his swift steed:

    A lion atop a fleet ostrich.

  32. Like a wave: if you hurl him

    Into battle's blazing furnace, he foams.

  33. The breeze stirred what covered him

    Of the pool's water, so it has rippled.

  34. You left him as though death,

    Deadly and swift, lay in ambush for him.

  35. Then his blades gazed toward a

    Sun through an inflamed eye.

  36. And you hemmed in the rivulet of his sword,

    Not with a solid spear or an Indian-forged blade.

  37. You leveled a faultless plan

    That dispensed with shattered spear-shafts.

  38. It is a court record in which yours is the

    Claim, and the sword's justice bears witness.

  39. And it is the white hand; to Tihama has gone

    The fame of its miracle, and to Najd.

  40. And your favors are like morning showers,

    And your benefactions cannot be counted.

  41. Ears have bowed before you in

    A rite of homage at every gathering.

  42. We count them a treasure, and what a fine

    Treasure for the exalted king!

  43. You drove the dark nights of grief away from

    Him, and the gloom of a troubled life.

  44. You mastered his foes; the most their

    Points can do is to be sharpened.

  45. Today his entrails do not

    Leap, nor is his sleep chased away.

  46. And you advanced against treacherous

    Time, and its hardness softened.

  47. Until you returned the whole

    Earth, united, to one without peer.

  48. They travel by night and set forth at dawn, from your faithfulness

    Toward me, along a well-trodden path.

  49. I have indeed known you, in pursuit of high honors,

    To defy whoever reproached you.

  50. You have accustomed me to leave wishing behind,

    And each person has what he is used to.

  51. And when a brother comes to you, give again;

    For repetition, as they say, is more praiseworthy.

  52. For it, gird up the hem of your care,

    Making your way toward every aim.

  53. For the fruit of worldly life is praise

    That endures forever after its speaker,

  54. Describing the gazelle as she

    Strays from the herd, and the ban-tree's smooth, supple shoot.

  55. For every verse in praise of your eminence,

    Well composed, is a necklace neatly strung.

  56. And when a reciter begins and declaims,

    Minds say, 'Sing on!'

  57. Even if they traveled through the breast of

    Noonday heat, or the heart of solid rock.

  58. And goodness remains; then neither

    The subject nor the lord remains.

  59. How many a deserted well lies there,

    And how many a lofty palace!

  60. So may you remain in shade, keeping pace with

    A lifetime of glory that never runs out.

  61. So the mantle of your glory is adorned at

    Both hems, with honor newly won and inherited.

  62. Had your excellence appeared in earlier days,

    Al-Mubarrad's eye would have grown hot at it.

  63. And if you are envied, there is no

    Wonder: the possessor of high rank is envied.

  64. And life is a journey's stage; whatever

    Good you can, take it as provision.

Sol 6.1