1. She sauntered, and the bough swayed, girdled at the waist.

    She appeared, and the full moon gleamed, wearing a necklace.

  2. She smiled and revealed carnelian, whose scattered beads

    Were arrayed like a necklace on the thread of dawn.

  3. She inclined, and I thought that beneath her mantle

    An idol addressed me, and a gazelle spoke.

  4. She gazed, and her glance nocked shafts that

    Outrank ordinary arrows in archers' eyes.

  5. She donned red garments and resembled

    A sun whose radiance made the east rosy.

  6. Polished with the polish of a sword, as though

    Quicksilver had been mixed into the kneaded clay of her being.

  7. Before her stature, we never knew that spear-shafts

    Could blossom amid gold and put forth leaves.

  8. Intoxicated when she turns, so supple are her bones

    That I fear her limbs might fall apart.

  9. I lower my gaze from the rippling of her cheek,

    Lest it behold it and never return, but drown.

  10. She is beauty's sign, which has made clear

    The censurer's unbelief and the error of whoever does not love.

  11. Longing to visit her, yet fearing her people,

    The east wind therefore grows gentle and flutters.

  12. A fair one, whose chamber shelters an egg

    Brooded to feather the arrows of death that are shot.

  13. No wind can carry toward her

    My greeting, nor can a phantom visit by night.

  14. Her chamber's Kaaba is never without someone circling it:

    Either a jealous guardian or a yearning lover.

  15. And likewise, there never cease to flutter around her

    Either banners or beating hearts.

  16. At evening, lovers' hearts, toward her fire,

    Seek light as moths do, and she burns them.

  17. How much heart's blood, in love of her, from an eye

    Flows in grief; how many a hand presses against a liver!

  18. How many a forest lion before her do you see,

    Bristling with weapons, with a gazelle's gaze, you behold.

  19. He combines gallantry and beauty: sometimes

    You fear meeting him, and sometimes you yearn for him.

  20. Each a bright-faced man whose figure, compared with his spear,

    Is keener, more piercing to souls, and more graceful.

  21. A handsome one: his cheek and sword resemble each other,

    For both are anointed with the blood of hearts.

  22. He meets you either wearing golden earrings,

    Or sways in iron, clad in an armored jacket.

  23. He smiles to reveal a lover's cool, sweet teeth; but if he sees

    A foe, he bares death's fangs and roars.

  24. In his hands is a smokeless flame from death's fire,

    And on his cheek the water of youth shimmers.

  25. Many a night I visited her gazelle's lair,

    With death watching me and closing in around me.

  26. I hastened to her, running over the thorns of spears,

    Trampling the heads of vipers and crushing them.

  27. Until I gained a hidden pearl

    Whose chamber's shell cannot be split open.

  28. Then I refrained from her, in chastity and scruple,

    To avoid a stain from her that would cling to my honor.

  29. Were it not for purity, I would not be turned from union with her

    By crimson deaths or blue steel.

  30. Blessed were the days that gathered us into

    One company, while separation's eye was lowered from us.

  31. Time reversed what separation sought

    For us, bringing us together and reconciling us.

  32. When our bough was fresh, and the spring of our pleasure

    Sweet, and life's garden fertile and delightful.

  33. With my life I would ransom the moons of a clan in the sanctuary,

    Who pitched domed tents over suns and erected pavilions.

  34. Bright of face, as though from stars

    Or from Abu al-Husayn's virtues they were fashioned.

  35. Son of the appointed successor, al-Murtada, and his namesake,

    Heir to the noble forebears for those still living.

  36. Rain of bounty, cleaver of enemies' skulls,

    Lord of gifts, the wondrously eloquent speaker.

  37. A noble man whose qualities, when revealed, show you

    Suns rising in the night of calamity.

  38. And virtues in him that tell you they

    Are innate, but in the nature of clouds merely assumed.

  39. The most generous-handed of kings, and the noblest in fatherhood,

    The kindest to Muslims, and the gentlest.

  40. The spirit of the age, its heart and its right hand;

    The palm of generosity, its forearm and elbow.

  41. Generous: when time delays, his promise

    Is more faithful than the later dawn, and truer.

  42. An ocean: from the iron in his palm is kindled

    A fire before which Moses falls down thunderstruck.

  43. In the assembly, upon the throne, he is a delight;

    And when settled in the saddle, an astonishing calamity.

  44. He surpassed the noble, though his age came later

    Than theirs: he is the last, yet the foremost.

  45. Say to those who denied his eminence and doubted

    Him: take heed, contemplate him, and ascertain.

  46. Leaf through the books of lofty deeds, for he is, in

    Their pages, the subtlest meaning: examine closely.

  47. The lords cannot attain his lordship, even if

    They flew on vultures' wings and soared.

  48. How often they seek to resemble his qualities!

    But can pondweed resemble a lovely garden?

  49. None among the stars is higher in rank than he;

    Certainly not, nor on earth is anyone more adept.

  50. The word 'generous,' applied to any generous man besides him—

    Except his father—is not used in its true sense.

  51. His basil is tawny spears, and his roses

    Crimson blades, while banners are his lilies.

  52. He loved noble deeds and became love-mad; his heart

    Is impassioned, clinging to no beauties but theirs.

  53. He delights in speaking of Najd, but what he means

    Is the Najd of lofty deeds, not the sandhill and stony rise.

  54. Were lightning not akin to the smiling of sword-edges,

    Its brilliant flashing would not stir his longing.

  55. Many a battle whose nightingales of victory

    Sing, while the ravens of death croak!

  56. The swimming steeds massed clouds above it,

    Whose lightning poured fresh blood in abundant showers.

  57. Its foremost steeds inflame its lions' rancors,

    Till their solid mass almost melts and gushes forth.

  58. A virgin, since death was born in her lap:

    Steel grew young, while crowns turned gray because of her.

  59. Dark, yet white-clad, as though

    In part, to the eye, she were a slave mottled white.

  60. She grew cramped, and he widened her; indeed, her expanse,

    But for him, would be narrower than a needle's eye.

  61. He rose above her darkness; but for his sword,

    I would be certain her morning would never break.

  62. Peerless: in each of his limbs you see

    A vast sea of bounty flowing and an army charging.

  63. No breast before his ever encompassed the world;

    Within his depths the whole of creation is gathered.

  64. Lord of bounty and father of the nobles who

    Unfastened virtue's bonds and set it free.

  65. The finest sons, stars on the horizons of guidance,

    Moons of the night of battle-dust when it grows dark.

  66. Heirs to generosity: to petitioners their giving

    Is boundless in number and never delayed.

  67. High-nosed with pride; despite their sternness, they have

    Qualities gentler than the breeze, and more serene.

  68. They carried crescents in their palms and jousted

    With stars in them, using full moons as shields.

  69. Proud lords: when they mount their steeds, you would think the steeds

    Eagles of the air hovering with lions.

  70. If they tasked their horses with ascending to the sky,

    They would almost stride above the Milky Way with them.

  71. By them and their glory I swear: toward them I am

    Sound of heart, with a love that never strays.

  72. Their father's kindness has taken possession of my neck,

    So I am his slave who is never freed.

  73. A master by whose service his servant was ennobled,

    And his character and speech were refined.

  74. From that service I gained my eloquence, then gave it over

    As his property, a trust that cannot be stolen.

  75. So when I speak praise of them, it is

    Their father's wealth that I spend upon them.

  76. My lord, may humankind never cease to congratulate you,

    And may God grant you success in what you desire.

  77. At the circumcision of your grandson Ahmad and his brother al-

    Mahmud, a radiance has overflowed upon humankind.

  78. The gray doves sing in joy and delight,

    And the great trees clap amid the leaves of their branches.

  79. Two grandsons, like two necklaces on greatness's neck,

    Each fastened above it and suspended.

  80. For glory, like two earrings—no, the point toward which its

    Two eyes are raised, as it now gazes intently on them.

  81. Two flames derived from two lights, like the two

    Vulture stars, whose radiances cannot be told apart.

  82. Like the two Farqad stars, entwined; both of them

    Are more radiant than the shining moon, and higher.

  83. Two pearls from two seas, each of which

    Is deep water where the deep-plunging diver loses his way.

  84. Two gallant men like two arrows; close at hand you see

    Each one, through whom foes are slain outright and burned.

  85. Two sons of Husayn, possessor of proud deeds and piety,

    The moon of greatness—oh, would that he never waned!

  86. A noble man who, after bringing praise to life, has

    A beautiful remembrance that is savored and inhaled.

  87. He left us five full moons of his own,

    All complete; the middle one more complete and more worthy.

  88. May mercy rest upon him as long as doves sing,

    Its gentle rain giving him a morning draught and spreading fragrance.

  89. He gained safety and security from death,

    And may your Lord spare you whatever harms and troubles.

  90. Breathe in the basil of noble deeds and greatness,

    And smell what fragrant pride your bosom holds.

  91. Sip with pleasure the honey of joy—

    Virtues on which foes choke and gag.

  92. And don the noblest robe of reverence,

    At whose freshness time wears out and grows threadbare.

Sol 6.1