Sol 6.1

  1. The necklaces told, through her collarbones, on her throat's authority,

    of beauties the stars recount on the authority of dawn.

  2. And the musk of her temple told us of her mole,

    a tale that night narrated from the full moon's dark mark.

  3. And her mouth composed the separate elements of a sentence

    that the ewer's mouth repeated from the bubbles of wine.

  4. My body's health would ransom the languor of her words, through whose

    chain of transmission musk narrated the tidings of fragrance.

  5. And on her cheek is a rose, with Moses' fire in its heart,

    and a mīm-shaped mouth, from whose spring comes al-Khidr's draught.

  6. Who will defend me against a maiden? Before my amulets,

    I draped my reproachers in my excuse for loving her.

  7. I have a tear-spring for her love: if rain wept

    through it, rubies would grow in the shells of pearls.

  8. My soul would ransom the gazelle-fawn she is, in gauzy robes,

    and her oryx's neck, wrapped in embers.

  9. Her tresses have indeed stolen nights

    from time; but for their length, I would say: from my lifetime.

  10. Indeed, by the swords of death in her eyelid,

    drawn from a scabbard and sheathed in enchantment;

  11. and lashes whose arrows drank the poison of her kohl,

    guarding the mouth's honeycomb with the thorns of bees;

  12. and the silence of a bracelet choked by her wrist,

    whose furtive whispering breathes into my breast—

  13. there is a burning grief in my heart: were it harbored

    in the depths of rainclouds, their drops would become ember-sparks.

  14. Inviolate, none but sleep visits her,

    and she is veiled from fancy's phantom when it comes by night.

  15. And by a collar of pure gold, whose crescent hides

    with dawn beneath the sun, in the dusk of her hair.

  16. When the thought of union with her crosses the imagination,

    I see death's steeds stumbling over the thought.

  17. Her dwelling is lofty; the full moon's halo is its light,

    and the arc encircling the sun is its curtain's circle.

  18. Beneath it, in darkness, the river of the Milky Way is seen,

    flowing there over the stars' pearl-pebbles.

  19. Its tent-ropes are shoulder-belts for the two Farqad stars,

    and its curtains at the side are the Eagle's wings.

  20. And a night whose shooting stars seemed

    to assail us with cleaving Indian-forged swords.

  21. In it I rode the wave of mounts and plunged into

    seas of death, seeking the curtained chamber's pearl.

  22. Safe, I embraced the wilderness fawn she was,

    and in the tent clasped hands with the palace's sculpted beauty.

  23. When farewell drew near us and we were enfolded

    by an embrace's shirt, it stripped us of patience's garment.

  24. She wept silver from a drowsy narcissus,

    and I poured gold from agate, brother to sleeplessness.

  25. So the full moon's eyes, in morning's red glow,

    streamed, and the sun's eye streamed with radiant stars.

  26. I rose, my lion's forearm wrapped

    around her, while the gazelle's right hand girdled my waist.

  27. So great was my anguish that her bracelet was almost melted

    by my ribs, though its core was of stone.

  28. And her necklace's solitary gem, for her anguish, almost

    melted and flowed like tears, though she did not know.

  29. May God water al-Aqiq's environs with flashes of lightning

    that cleave night's forearm amid rods of gold.

  30. And may the red of anemones remain alight,

    with ruby flames there upon stems of golden beads.

  31. A sanctuary whose herd's gazelles the lions avoid,

    and from its spring the eyes of dust-colored gazelles strike them down.

  32. Sword-edges encircle its moons in crescents,

    and guard the stars of bright swords amid the stars of dusky spears.

  33. Ah, how dear an age gone by, and nights,

    brides of intimacy, smiling with gladness!

  34. And our days were radiant, their anklets as though

    Ali's benefactions on the necks of Time's sons.

  35. Benefactions exalted beyond comparison; they have only

    toyed with my mind as enchantresses, spells of magic.

  36. Manifest favors: glory is adorned by them with stars

    guiding night-travelers toward the abode of ease.

  37. Keen spearheads for the ash-wood lances of high attainment,

    and blades with which suppliants assail poverty.

  38. They grew in his two palms as his fingers grew,

    and lowered bounty's clusters among the fruits of gratitude.

  39. He is the singular number that sums all praise,

    and from him comes the division of mending and breaking.

  40. His good deeds are a necklace on eminence's shoulder,

    and his bounty a crown on pride's head.

  41. A springtime: whenever you visit him, you visit a garden

    where his sound judgment opens the eyes of flowers.

  42. You are mad with love for him, for a character that seems

    to waft upon us in the breeze of chaste love.

  43. O seekers of the oceans' depths, be content with him:

    all seven lie folded within his ten fingertips.

  44. When bounty brings forth his white hand,

    woe to the mother of white coins and yellow leaves!

  45. A man of high resolve, whose body armor engulfs,

    and how strange that the sea should drown in the charge!

  46. The dusky lances, though withered, almost

    quiver with green leaves in his palm.

  47. How many houses has he struck with calamity,

    till they—and their ordered verse—became like prose orations!

  48. God be praised for his stand, at forenoon on the day of al-Karkh,

    when the Bedouins surged with a vast army!

  49. They came to him, stretching their necks in arrogance,

    then that swelling tide of theirs was turned to ebb.

  50. They hurled a war at him; whenever it stood on its leg,

    deaths galloped through hearts out of terror.

  51. He sells death in its market, a bargain of wishes,

    for payment in precious souls, to whoever buys.

  52. They pounced, and he pounced like a lion, leading young warriors

    who see seasoned war in the form of a maiden,

  53. and knights of death, who advance into battle

    when the lions of combat shy away from the charge,

  54. and horses with ostriches' shanks, as though

    they fly, when they spring up, on dusky sandgrouse wings.

  55. He married the male sword-blades into their souls,

    and paid them blows of iron as the bridal dower.

  56. And the wild beasts of the land, from what he shed

    of blood, became like fish in the sea's depths.

  57. He built churches and hermitages from their heads,

    where the vulture-monk took a mosque as his abode.

  58. They met him like hawks, birds of prey,

    and fled as hawks retreat before the falcon.

  59. Some fell to earth into the net of death,

    and some flew from him on the wings of white-blazed steeds.

  60. How could they have troops to face his troops?

    How can al-Khatt's lances be compared with lote-tree sticks?

  61. They rebelled and tried against him what, had

    meteors attempted it, would have shattered them short of him.

  62. And the fingers parted from the Henna-Dyed Hand,

    and before him the Arm's reach fell short of a handspan.

  63. His Pharaohs plotted against him; then it swallowed up—

    the staff of his resolve—what guile they fabricated.

  64. There is sickness in their hearts from hatred of him

    and of Ali's cleaving sword, Dhu al-Fiqar.

  65. O son of the Messenger of God, and master who

    holds a lordship through which the age's honor rises,

  66. the tribes sought to plot against you, so you outplotted them,

    and victory's mighty lord honored your dwelling.

  67. They hoped that some merchandise might perish among them,

    so the shepherd of ruin led them to loss.

  68. May a victory gladden you, whose might leaves foes helpless,

    and a conquest that unlocks what is closed in affairs.

  69. Enough for your pride is your holding death back from them,

    and enough captivity for them is that submission.

  70. Ah, pardon them, for they are surely your slaves,

    and the qualities of pardon are among a free man's traits.

Sol 6.1