Sol 6.1

  1. This is al-Aqiq, and those are its lofty peaks.

    So mingle the silver of tears with its pure gold.

  2. And alight: there is a resting place where you always see

    love's hearts among its riders.

  3. Breathe the perfume of its soil, and kiss the pebbles

    on its slope, where necklaces of its pearls lie scattered.

  4. And turn us toward al-Muhassab in Mina,

    and beware the archers of coquetry among its gazelles.

  5. Guard yourself there against piercing, whether by the lances

    of its horsemen or the figures of its beauties.

  6. How noble a spring abode! From its roses come the

    cheeks, and from its branches the graceful forms.

  7. A dwelling where, when the doves of its arak trees sing,

    the bending boughs of its ban trees dance with delight.

  8. A celestial sphere descended, and so is taken for a patch of earth:

    do you not see moons among its inhabitants?

  9. Blood has dyed both its gazelle and its lion:

    this upon its cheek, that upon his fingertips [reading uncertain].

  10. If you do not know where death has its abode,

    ask me, for I know its place.

  11. It is in the black eyelids of its maidens,

    or in the white scabbards of its young men.

  12. Who will grant me sight of faces in its zenith,

    whose suns distance has veiled with its clouds?

  13. Fair ones: when an east wind plays with their trailing robes,

    the breeze carries musk in its sleeves.

  14. She turned to the forenoon's flame and veiled herself

    in it, while darkness hooded her with its smoke.

  15. Each radiant maiden—within her brother's crown

    is a moon, surrounded by the stars of his supple lances.

  16. Orion bestowed the blazing stars of its belt on him

    as jewels, and the crescent braceleted her with its arc [reading uncertain].

  17. This one assaults, with the blades of her eyelids,

    the hearts of lions; that one, with his ashwood lances.

  18. Lightning's mouth parts in a smile beneath her veil,

    and from her the rain goes forth in its shirts.

  19. Slenderness lies hidden in her waist and in his sword,

    and death comes from her drowsy eye and his spearpoint.

  20. In her curtained litter, the pale camels bear a gazelle fawn,

    and from him a lion bears his stallion's saddle.

  21. I swear by Salʿ—an oath sworn by a lover

    whom the vicissitudes of parting drove from his neighbors.

  22. My hearing never longed for mention of a dwelling in Tayba

    without my becoming enamored of those inhabiting its valleys.

  23. A land which, when you behold it, you know that

    God has made His seven gardens eight within it.

  24. A frontier guarded by the broad blades of the oryxes' eyelids,

    and watched over by the spears of the lions of its combats.

  25. At evening, the moth-hearts of the masters of love

    fling themselves upon its fires.

  26. Were it not for love's tales about its people,

    my eye would not have narrated tears from its pupil.

  27. Do not reproach my drunkenness at their mention, when

    the storyteller unseals the finest wine of his tavern.

  28. They lent pearls to my hearing, and demanded

    in return a stream of tears from its coral.

  29. How long, then, will time bereave me of them,

    though it has seen my fortitude against its calamities?

  30. My reproach against this time is lengthy;

    unfolding its meaning leads to prolixity.

  31. Far be it that I should meet it at peace with me:

    the free man of letters is his age's enemy.

  32. O heart, do not complain of yearning after

    you have cast yourself into love and its abasement.

  33. You love, yet hope to flee from love;

    how can you escape when you are pledged to its bond?

  34. O companions! Who will aid the heart of one sick with love,

    whose fires have torn the limbs from his consolation?

  35. Before love, I never encountered a fire that burned

    a human being while love of al-Mustafa dwelt in his heart.

  36. The best of prophets, of whom the

    Torah and Gospel spoke before his time;

  37. mankind's refuge, the rain aiding the one crying for help, his shelter,

    the guarantor of his rescue, and the fortress of his safety;

  38. who makes the deaf stone speak in his palm,

    and silences the eloquent with his exposition;

  39. God's kindness, and the secret of His wisdom, which

    the breast of the rain could no longer conceal.

  40. A champion through whom monotheism began to smile,

    while polytheism sobbed over its idols.

  41. The ordinances of his faith abrogated the earlier scriptures

    through the definitive verses of his Criterion.

  42. The keen swords lie in blood at evening when he attacks,

    their cheeks dyed with its pigment.

  43. Never ceasing to watch his figure across the horizons, with

    an eye whose lids sleep avoids,

  44. fearful, taking sleep for the flash of his swords,

    and seeing the night's stars as his spearheads—

  45. the armored warrior's heart, when it sees him draw

    a sword, is like a maiden's earring within its hoops.

  46. And many a battlefield where the garden of sword-edges bloomed,

    with brown spear-shafts among its boughs.

  47. Blood dyed the rivets of its woven iron mail,

    so its anemones flourished upon its pools.

  48. The gaping wounds weep there, while death

    smiles, with bright swords for its teeth.

  49. His spearheads, though foxes, dealt death

    to the limbs of the lions among its horsemen.

  50. Gabriel is among his helpers, Michael among

    his companions, and Azrael among his helpers.

  51. A light appeared, revealing the dawn of guidance,

    and cleared away error in the radiance of his proof.

  52. The Ha-Mim chapters of the Book testified to his excellence,

    and that suffices him for glory above his peers.

  53. Ask Ya-Sin, Ta-Ha, and al-Duha about him,

    if you do not know the truth of his rank.

  54. And ask the sacred stations, al-Hatim, and Zamzam

    about the glory of his Hashim and his Imran.

  55. The Arm is exalted by his soles, while the

    Crown descends, begging before his diadems.

  56. Were the sun to seek refuge in him from darkness,

    darkness would have dawn among its shrouds.

  57. Or, if he wished to bar the full moon in its spheres

    from its course, it would not move in its reckoning.

  58. Or, if he sought a path through the Milky Way's horizon,

    his racing horses would run in his arena.

  59. Destinies do not take effect across the regions in

    anything without leave from his authority.

  60. God subjected them to him, and their unruly ones

    are easy to lead before him, obedient to his reins.

  61. He is the one without whom Noah would not have survived

    his flood aboard his laden ark.

  62. No, nor would Moses, God's interlocutor, have served death to

    his Pharaoh, or risen above his Haman.

  63. If the Throne is mentioned, he bears its leg;

    if the Tablet is mentioned, he is in its heading.

  64. The breeze of bliss and the spirit of its Tuba tree, from whose

    boughs the fruits of generosity are gathered.

  65. O master of the two worlds—indeed, O weightiest of the

    two weighty hosts in God's scales;

  66. you who shame the shining moon at its fullness

    with your beauty, and the rain with your beneficence;

  67. and the valiant horseman whose clouds of dust

    are his incense, and brown lances his basil.

  68. Forgive me: praise of you falls short,

    and your servant confesses the weakness of his tongue.

  69. What is his worth? What is his verse in praise of one

    whom God praises in His Quran?

  70. Without you, the pale camels would not have carried me across the wastes,

    nor would I have crossed their broad uplands to their lowlands.

  71. I set my hope in you and visited your grave with praise,

    to attain God's good pleasure.

  72. A servant has come to you, led by fair hope;

    far be it from your bounty that he return deprived.

  73. So accept his turning back to you, for

    through you he asks God to pardon his disobedience.

  74. Then intercede for him and his family on the Day of Recompense,

    and for his parents and the righteous among his brethren.

  75. May God bless you, O master of mankind,

    as long as an exile yearns for his homelands.

Sol 6.1