Sol 6

  1. The best of humankind at dealing firmly with their worst

    is he who enforces judgments with swords.

  2. None but the Victorious One can sleep despite a mote in his eye,

    while anyone else heaps blame upon his critics.

  3. He made his letter to the enemy into battalions

    that showed them wounds in place of words.

  4. He made swords speak, knowing that

    they spare him the need to make pens speak.

  5. Hope and fear alike are directed toward

    one who bestows lavish gifts and compels obedience.

  6. O suppressor of aggression, with a resolute spirit

    that rejects darkness and dispels the gloom,

  7. fear of you stripped the nights of their injustice,

    and your blessings brought the days into your service.

  8. How many a kingdom had men who defied you

    for a time, until you left its women widowed.

  9. You shook the land of the Byzantines with troubles

    that made them see a year in each day.

  10. They denied the favors you had granted them, though

    whoever fails to thank generosity invites humiliation.

  11. How often a healthy person has denied the gift of health,

    only for that ingratitude to turn it into sickness.

  12. While awake, you beset them with fears

    that had once beset them in dreams.

  13. They found no flash of threat to be false lightning,

    nor any cloud of warning to be rainless.

  14. You gave them safety though you had the power to strike, and you frightened them

    so they might know you in calm and in fury.

  15. Though they may be more numerous as prey, sword blades

    consume even hardy ground and never reject a meal.

  16. Their advance guards brought them disaster; what of tomorrow

    if the full army visits their land in its multitudes?

  17. Among warriors who consign them to the fire of battle

    always, even if those warriors are dear to you.

  18. They take nothing but lives; they have enough

    great favors gathered from your hands.

  19. Your rule disciplines them: it is a rule that

    raises generous gifts and teaches boldness.

  20. Two mingled groups, townsmen and nomads, have long

    met pain wherever your flank was exposed.

  21. It did not diminish them, though hearts were close in

    inclination, that their kinship ties grew distant.

  22. Horses outran the messengers of warning, sent forth

    by the resolve of an awe inspiring man that outruns imagination.

  23. They clothed the earth in the gleam of iron

    and darkened the sky with their battle dust.

  24. On the day of Artah, when at morning they gave them

    a bitter death that mastered their souls.

  25. There they captured their leader and left

    their great men as bones after the raid.

  26. They threw aside their bows and surrendered him, because

    their arrows missed when battle grew fierce.

  27. Even a commander over commanders would refuse his equal

    unless you granted the envoy safe conduct.

  28. And the sons of Adi, when they met their assembled foes,

    left their spears with no thirst to complain of.

  29. They returned swaying in their hands, as though

    they had been given wine to drink from that blood.

  30. When they saw the writing of the blades without its dots,

    they supplied it with the spear points' punctures.

  31. And Abu al-Fawaris routed them at the ford of al-Burji,

    routing the army like a herd of cattle.

  32. They roared like lions, but

    when the struggle grew earnest, they became ostriches.

  33. So the heads of their chiefs arrived, carried aloft;

    they had done wrong, and death was no wrongdoer.

  34. Your raiding parties scattered death and multiplied

    the orphans in the land of Antioch.

  35. They pressed on with resolve; even when nothing turned them aside,

    they pitched tents on the shore of the gulf.

  36. Let the domestikos stay within his fortress, shrinking

    from war with them; he will be glad he held back.

  37. If he left its walls, his force would become

    debris among shattered spear shafts.

  38. There he would learn who is firmer of will

    in combat, and who is fiercer in dispute.

  39. The calamity of al-Zarwar is not far from him

    if he seeks to end the harm as he wishes.

  40. You subdued the dominion of the Arabs in its seat of power;

    the Byzantines would be an easier aim if you chose.

  41. How could the mountain goats resist you when they have seen

    that even thickets cannot protect fierce lions?

  42. If you sought their king's presence tomorrow,

    he would come to you in submission to Islam or surrender.

  43. Let them answer with submission: what besides

    the honor of high rank can pardon wrongdoing?

  44. By my life, they have tested his pleasure and his anger

    and found sweet life and death.

  45. He gave them the water of life when they submitted,

    but when they resisted, it turned to poison.

  46. Whoever thought the Milky Way a pasture went astray,

    imagining its bright stars as grazing herds.

  47. Good fortune to the frontier fortresses: they are protected

    by the mightiest defender of all that must be guarded.

  48. If enemies kindle a fire, he turns it

    to coolness and peace for their inhabitants.

  49. Through his resolve, his judgments, and his gifts,

    they are spared death, injustice, and want.

  50. They feel safe at the mention of your name even in your absence; often

    the lion was away while his forest remained feared.

  51. A safety that let the wakeful sleep, whereas before it

    fear, by your life, kept even sleepers awake.

  52. So stay, for your command prevails; for one

    like you, travel and residence have become the same.

  53. Let the kings of the lands know that they

    all depend on a king who resides in Syria.

  54. If a crisis turns unjust, he is a decisive judge over it;

    if he meets champions in battle, he is a keen sword.

  55. Pouring rain becomes a meager shower when he gives;

    and when he pursues glory, he sends heads flying.

  56. Virtues singled you out for immense standing,

    exceeding all reverence and esteem.

  57. You have always sought every great deed

    of glory, until you left no great man to rival you.

  58. Others inherited virtues, one from another;

    you refused that path and won yours by inspiration.

  59. You left them behind, though you suppose

    they went before you; your age keeps seeking the ancients.

  60. Generosity and courage, O possessor of both,

    have left their former exemplars behind your path.

  61. You have borne from the heart of the caliphate its sword,

    a burden that would weigh down Mutali and Shamam.

  62. Whenever a state grows weary of events,

    it entrusts decisions to undo or settle them to you.

  63. Let those for whom you worked tirelessly thank you,

    so they could rest, and those for whom you stayed awake could sleep.

  64. How lovely the world is while your power prevails

    and your generosity pours forth; may you and it endure.

  65. You have showered even offenders with favors

    that surpass praise and exceed gifts themselves.

  66. If they fulfilled even the smallest duty owed for them,

    they would spend an age fasting as you do.

  67. May you remain safe; how many renowned stands are yours

    in which you pleased God and Islam.

  68. Why should souls not wish you to remain,

    when without you they would not dwell in bodies?

  69. And how could thoughts fail to praise you

    when you are the one who gave them understanding?

  70. A king surpassed other kings in zeal and piety;

    his resolutions traveled far, while he stayed.

  71. He ordered the battalions to strive in holy war and worked

    to ease the pilgrimage routes, and then he fasted.

  72. May you rejoice in the month that praises what

    you made its beginning and its end.

  73. A month whose opening you made a campaign,

    out of piety, and whose close was sending the pilgrims forth.

  74. Your good deeds have purged sins from a community

    that you enriched and protected.

  75. You made its worldly life and afterlife better; so live on,

    outlasting the months and exhausting the years.

Sol 6