1. Turn with us toward al-Hajun, and veer

    where love lies within it; there lies the goal.

  2. Lead us toward Umm al-Qura, so that perhaps we

    may draw near Layla in the morning and come close.

  3. Describe my distress to the dwellers of al-Safa; perhaps

    one day they will grant justice, and the drinking water run clear.

  4. Leave the throbbing hearts at his dwelling

    to fulfill the duties owed, and lament.

  5. Stop at the Jamarat; let us ask those there

    about those who kindled their embers within our breasts.

  6. Guard the limbs lest the oryxes hunt them,

    for snares made of eyes are laid for them.

  7. Search my heart; if you do not find

    them within it—I stand surety—then pelt me with pebbles.

  8. Head to the right of Mina; there, among desires,

    lies a secret veiled within the entrails of death.

  9. Fall prostrate upon its soil, and fulfill the

    vision by slaughtering your hearts, and offer them up.

  10. O dwellers of Jam', by the right of all of you,

    my love indeed branches out among your ravines.

  11. Did you think I would tire of your torment,

    when your torment is sweet to me and delightful?

  12. You directed toward the Midian of your love

    my heart, and it became fearful, keeping watch.

  13. You seized it in retribution for your cheeks,

    though it is innocent, and my eye's glance is guilty.

  14. I truly marvel at the speech of your gazelles,

    yet your stars rising in broad daylight is more wondrous.

  15. I marvel at teeth that sprout pearls,

    but imagining words as pearls is stranger still.

  16. The wrists of your gazelle guard the heart,

    and the gazelle herd adds to the sash's speech.

  17. In your beloved, the gazelle appears veiled,

    and the ban-tree's branch sways, wearing a headband.

  18. Your moons rise above the crescents,

    and your suns set beneath the canopies.

  19. You guarded beauty's frontiers against love's troops,

    and defended them within eyelids that strike.

  20. God be praised for a dwelling in the sanctuary, in whose chambers

    eagles tend the ostriches' eggs.

  21. A dwelling where, in its tribe's gathering places, the

    lions frolic and the oryx calves play.

  22. A radiant lodging, as though its herd's playground

    were a sphere studded with the moons of night.

  23. I would ransom the full moons of a tribe's nobles; above it

    they pitched pavilions over suns and stretched the tent-ropes,

  24. and stars of beauty sheltered by crescents,

    whose radiance branches sent coursing in youth.

  25. and clans whose leftover spear splinters

    suffice them, on hospitality's day, to make their requests.

  26. They raised thunderstriking clouds and adorned themselves

    with them, and veiled themselves above the lightning.

  27. How lovely the age gone by! There is no flaw in

    its aftermath, except that it never returns.

  28. Purer and gentler than a lover's letters

    were its evenings, and more delicate than love verses.

  29. How long will time put me off with promises of its return?

    Far from it! What departs will not return.

  30. Time's promise, even when its truth is established,

    may be falser than dawn's cleaving of the darkness.

  31. How strange this age: it betrays a young man

    and grieves his soul, though it is beloved.

  32. No cloud's spray would have slaked a pasture-seeker,

    were it not for Abu al-Husayn's rain-pouring bounty.

  33. A king whose virtue's ornament adorns the age,

    and whose station attains lofty honor.

  34. A noble man: when noble lineages are traced, from

    his ancestry wafts the Prophet's sweetest fragrance.

  35. A lineage—if dawn possessed its radiance,

    morning light would live forever, and darkness die.

  36. Or if the veil were lifted from its light in the dark,

    the chameleon would rise at night to watch it.

  37. From the house of Haydara, the highborn lords who

    laid generosity upon consciences as a duty, and made it binding.

  38. A people who are the rains when rain is lacking,

    and thunderbolts among mankind when war is waged upon them.

  39. They scatter the necklace of necks when fought,

    and string the pearls of eminence when addressed.

  40. A mortal fashioned from dew and generosity,

    so his sides soften, yet grow hard.

  41. A lion whose two hands brandish a sharp sword's flame,

    from which one might almost drink the water of death.

  42. A river of steel, now flowing—

    its watered pattern streaming, its striking edge ablaze.

  43. A just arbiter with time's nature: when he judges

    with the sword, he lowers and raises whom he wills.

  44. His upright spear decrees the host's dispersal,

    and at his side a keen, eloquent blade builds glory.

  45. This is the age's peerless man, its finest; if

    you doubt, put mankind to the test and try them.

  46. The gathering is not praised, nor does its fragrance waft,

    unless the singer sings his praise.

  47. An ocean: when asked for bounty, his pearls

    float, while the sea's pearls sink within it.

  48. A band follows him from the eagle's conquest,

    and within it a procession of lions encircles him.

  49. A raider: when his blades ring in the night,

    Death sings through him, and the cricket cries out.

  50. He parts his lips in a smile, and his wealth begins

    to weep; the sword is content when he grows angry.

  51. Astute: his thought brings to every marvel

    an ordered folding and unfolding of affairs.

  52. Gold's face turns yellow, fearing his giving it away,

    until its solid mass almost melts and departs.

  53. Were he a sun, no east would contain him,

    and the west would be too narrow to conceal his rays.

  54. Or if time's face gained the least of his cheer,

    no frown of calamity would appear upon it.

  55. O son of him through whose knowledge and sword

    God was known, and in whom the creed was made clear,

  56. in battle you took none but the Indian-forged sword

    as a companion, and consort with none but the straightened spear.

  57. Many a battlefield whose dust seemed—

    with white blades gleaming in it—a gray-haired light.

  58. Necks weep upon its ground, while the mouth of death

    smiles amid the blows, revealing cool, gleaming teeth.

  59. His sharp swords fasted, and his blades prayed,

    so heads bow in worship, and deaths deliver sermons.

  60. How many a pool of ample chainmail lay cast down there,

    with the algae of its rust showing upon it.

  61. There you led the sword to drink, a mere piece of iron,

    and returned with it gilded in gore.

  62. There you left hermits' towers made of heads,

    upon which the aged vulture, turned monk, prayed.

  63. You rode, with vultures following you, while in truth

    the cavalry troop travels behind them, within their entrails.

  64. God bless you, young hero! You have not left

    anything of firmly founded glory still to be sought.

  65. You turned your sword, O Ali, toward the heights,

    thus riding in it a lion that cannot be ridden.

  66. Never did Fate nock an unerring arrow

    and shoot it without your judgment being surer still.

  67. My lord, lend an ear to a devoted slave:

    praise refined by genuine affection.

  68. Praise at whose chanting Harut came

    to acquire his sorcery from its words.

  69. Its rare pearls resemble necklaces, yet

    their virgin gems lie hidden, unpierced.

  70. Turn your thought upon them; do not be deceived by

    any other lightning: that is a flash without rain.

  71. Rejoice in the feast which, but for you, would not

    be revisited by mankind, repeated and welcomed.

  72. Receive in full the reward of its fasting and fast-breaking:

    the hearts of foes; and don glory that cannot be stripped away.

Sol 6.1