1. Are the precincts of the protected retreat counted among the constellations?

    For its pleasure grounds have indeed gathered stars.

  2. A dwelling on whose earth the beauties imagined

    That descending there was ascending to heaven.

  3. How noble those faces at its zenith,

    Which rose against the army of darkness, and it dispersed.

  4. A celestial sphere descended starless; and when it settled,

    Egypt descended into it, and it became star-studded.

  5. In each flock among the peerless beauties of its company,

    Beauty placed a twin of the Farqad stars.

  6. The crescent envied the bracelet there, and wished

    It could shift from the arm to the wrist instead.

  7. Until, when the censers of its incense flared,

    Day donned over it a dark night.

  8. If there is any kinship between dwellings,

    Its sweetest affiliation is with Darin.

  9. A sanctuary where at evening the Indian blade enters sacred restraint,

    And you see freely available water forbidden there.

  10. The smiling sword watered it with its tears,

    Until it barred the seeker of dry ablution from its dust.

  11. May rain bless that dwelling, where love descended

    Into its quarters, built tents, and encamped.

  12. I would ransom with my lifeblood those Arabs, without whom

    Eyelids would never have made an obscure secret plain.

  13. Arabs among whom, whenever lightning smiled,

    It veiled itself in the hems of clouds for shame.

  14. O heart, how far you are from reaching their full moons,

    Even if you made the cords of your sun a ladder.

  15. Radiant ones whose slender forms spared them the need for spears,

    And whose dark-eyed beauty was arrows enough.

  16. Their lions wore iron wrought into linked mail,

    And their gazelles, silk brocade patterned with arrows.

  17. The sun appears in their encampment by night,

    And the full moon rises by day, cloud-veiled.

  18. Each a lion upon an ostrich's back,

    Holding a speckled serpent in his fingers for thrusting.

  19. Their cheeks erased blackness, and rose-red grew

    Their bowls, from the blood they shed.

  20. His gentleness flows with the fierceness of his valor,

    So he bends like a Khatt spear and smiles like a keen sword.

  21. They loved death and sought its causes;

    Thus they adored eyes with enslaving passion.

  22. And they sipped the honey of lips, because they

    Echo the brown of supple spears in their dusky hue.

  23. And for their love of shedding blood and drinking it,

    They drank aged wine, imagining its redness to be blood.

  24. They confined the maidens in tents, so that

    Their bashful women in the pavilions resembled figures of dolls.

  25. They barred sleep before them against youth,

    Lest the breeze should pass by them with a greeting.

  26. Their young men's faces bear Yusuf's beauty,

    And the maidens' waist-wraps, Maryam's chastity.

  27. Beauty appeared as an incomplete idea,

    Until it visited their encampment and became complete.

  28. Pearls lay scattered throughout the world,

    Until their lips gathered them into a string.

  29. They rebuked forgetfulness from hearts and enthroned

    Within them the sovereign of love, who ruled at will.

  30. By God, how many a wild-ox calf in their encampment

    Assails his very heart and fells a lion!

  31. And how many a cheek among them flushed rose-red

    In contention, while another turned blood-red with tears.

  32. Their glances slay hearts, just as

    Muhsin's hand has come to quench the thirst-maddened.

  33. Rain, in whose presence the gardens of bounty-seekers

    Bloom with flowers of gold whenever he pours.

  34. A generous man—how often his favors have revealed for us

    A bright blaze on the brow of a black calamity!

  35. A handsome man through whom Time gained beauty,

    So its loveliness grew sweet, though it had been colocynth.

  36. You meet him through the days either striking,

    Or thrusting, or giving, or feeding others.

  37. At times you see him a deep pool sought for water,

    Sweet to drink; at others, a blazing meteor.

  38. He donned eminence before swaddling, and before

    Shedding his amulets, he wore weapons as rings.

  39. In his face is the light of guidance, and in his scabbard

    The fire of death; in his palm, an overflowing sea.

  40. If some of his hand's generosity

    Were in Qarun's right hand, he would become penniless.

  41. A mountain on his steed's back, you would think him

    A marked banner standing before the battalions.

  42. His Indian blade quivers with delight; and if

    Lifeless things could sing, it would nearly burst into song.

  43. His reed pen almost speaks between his fingers,

    If one whose tongue was severed could speak.

  44. He arrived when Glory's eye had been shut upon a mote

    For an age; through him it saw after blindness.

  45. He came to Time, whose face had frowned

    In anger at its children, and it smiled.

  46. A moon whose face displays the mark of eminence:

    Trace its signs, you two, and discern them;

  47. And contemplate him: complete is the light of felicity

    And sovereignty, which eminence will not let be concealed.

  48. At his hand, swords rain upon the enemies

    As vengeance, returning to loved ones as blessings.

  49. The fire of steel, to him, in battle's heat,

    Is sweeter than clear water in thirst.

  50. Generosity is not the rain's inborn disposition;

    Rather, his palms taught it, and it learned.

  51. Were it not for his eloquence and his lineage from Haydar,

    I would think him Rustam on the day of battle.

  52. A son of the noblest father, from a people

    Who inherited noble virtues, one noble man from another.

  53. His father recounts, from his grandfather, glorious deeds

    Of his own father; today he recounts them from both.

  54. Likewise his noble brothers, every one of them,

    Transmitted accounts of praiseworthy deeds from those two.

  55. Each with a radiant countenance, rightfully entitled

    By its nobility to make the moons its servants.

  56. Whichever of them you choose, you find him in his war

    And peace a battle-lion and a sea of bounty.

  57. Radiant ones, alike in the manners of the noble,

    Until we found their differences an obscure matter.

  58. They are the shining full moons; it is only that

    Perfection has been divided equally among them.

  59. My lord, you are my masters, and my eminence

    Comes from you; my worth has risen through praising you.

  60. You brought me close to your exalted presence,

    So I became exalted in standing and honored.

  61. Had they not obliged me to prostrate in gratitude—

    Your favors to me—I would have reached Mirzam.

  62. God bless you, discerning man, whose judgment

    Never misses Time's targets when it takes aim.

  63. Congratulations on your fortunate son and his circumcision;

    May his Creator, the Preserver, guard him and keep him safe.

  64. A son—on the day of his birth, generosity took form,

    And Glory returned to youth, after

  65. The sun of morning bore him by the moon of night.

    Through him she gained a son whom both had envisioned.

  66. I purified him by circumcision, though he was pure

    Before circumcision, in observance of sacred law and in honor.

  67. How can your little boy be purified by circumcision,

    Or you be impure, when you are the water of heaven?

  68. The verses of the Book testify for you that

    You are leaping upward from birth, and even before.

  69. You are the Chosen One's sons, the noblest lineage;

    May God send blessings and peace upon you.

Sol 6.1