Sol 6.1

  1. Are these blades from your eyelids, or arrows?

    And a spear within the sheer robe, or your figure?

  2. And crystal upon your cheek, or carnelian?

    And honey in your saliva, or wine?

  3. And a sun beneath your veil, or a crescent

    Arrayed in you—or a moon at its full?

  4. And a neck within the necklace, or morning?

    And tresses within the beaded ornament, or darkness?

  5. Ah, by the clarity of a pool's water,

    Along whose banks flames blaze,

  6. And by the white blades of dark, drowsy eyes,

    Within whose eyelids death lurks for us,

  7. Love has indeed shattered the mighty host of my patience;

    So I grew love-mad—how sweet is madness for you!

  8. Your avoidance of me has sickened me, so my body,

    Like your gaze, is never free of sickness.

  9. My soul would ransom the kindling lightning-flash, whenever

    The face-veil draws back from your front teeth,

  10. And, with cool, gleaming pearls, necklaces of words

    That speech strings together in your utterance.

  11. May the rain of joy water Najd's rugged uplands,

    And may clouds pour freely upon its springtime camps.

  12. Dwellings where the gazelles are sheltered by

    Thoroughbred horses and noble lions.

  13. Towers where moons shine,

    Wearing necklaces, while tents conceal them.

  14. When their lovely women spread their rich perfumes,

    The dust in their dwellings grows fragrant.

  15. Ah, blessings upon days that passed

    There, while parting's blade was blunt,

  16. And the hosts of joy came

    To us, while cares fled in defeat.

  17. And upon one of slender stature who, when he swayed,

    Doves would almost alight upon him.

  18. When he was compared with branches, proud grew

    The boughs of the ban tree, and the balsam boasted.

  19. The scabbards of keen swords keep vigil beside him,

    Their eyes held open, never sleeping.

  20. I burst in upon him, while the horizons were dusky

    Of lip, and the bright stars were smiling.

  21. And night's Hind, with the Pleiades for an earring,

    Was bedecked, and had the crescent for a nose-ring.

  22. And never before him had I seen a full moon in a secluded chamber,

    Nor a sun concealed by a veil.

  23. Nor over the points of lofty spears

    Had any love-mad lover ventured before me.

  24. Will that union ever continue,

    And will this separation ever end?

  25. I marvel at Time, which has struck us

    With a separation whose two branches cannot reunite.

  26. How can its arrows strike us,

    When our shield is the valiant Ibn Mansur?

  27. And how can it scatter our fellowship, when we

    Are strung together on the thread of his service?

  28. Mighty: no guest of his is humbled,

    Nor is the oppressed made to fear in his presence.

  29. Peerless in glory, without a partner,

    Yet all mankind shares in his bounty.

  30. A hero who has made necks weep,

    When the keen sword laughed in his hands.

  31. Though bodies among mankind have resembled him,

    So too do rainless clouds resemble rain-bearing clouds.

  32. He strove toward greatness and raised a house

    Whose pillars soared to the Throne.

  33. Generous: each limb of his is rain

    Pouring freely, and every member a mighty host.

  34. May the Merciful guard an age in which there settled among us

    The blessings of our valiant lord.

  35. Brother to kindness, son of glory, a noble freeman,

    Nurtured by illustrious, mighty lords.

  36. He took charge of al-Mahdi's rule and revived

    His noble deeds, though the bones had crumbled.

  37. The hopeful seeker of his aid exults

    In his conduct, and the throng takes pride.

  38. He surpasses the rainclouds if they vie with him,

    And his brimming fountain exhausts the sea.

  39. Generous: in the fingertips of his two palms

    Are life for mankind and swift death.

  40. And a battlefield where death's rain falls

    Upon adversaries, and the clouds are battle-dust.

  41. Seas of lifeblood flow there,

    And the fires of battle's furnace rage.

  42. The mouths of gleaming swords smile there,

    And the spears' tall forms stand erect.

  43. Its crushing pressure took shape in a single man; then fled

    The lions' wild charge, and the throng broke apart.

  44. He is the champion who, if ever he sought

    To reach the sun, would find the goal not distant.

  45. Ah, O lion who defends

    Islam and the lord, the Imam!

  46. And O son of those who advance upon death,

    When the clash of battle has hidden the proud chieftains!

  47. And you whom the forms of prose adorn,

    And in whose praise verse grows beautiful.

  48. The nights found safety through your birth,

    And mighty calamities feared your force.

  49. The festival grew proud in love for you, and boasted

    Of you before the lands, while fasting took pride.

  50. For this festival is nothing but a love-mad lover,

    Whom passion called to visit you.

  51. May it never miss visiting you each year

    That passes, nor may its greeting ever pass you by.

Sol 6.1