Sol 6.1

  1. Is the fragrance of youthful dalliance within the folds of the east wind?

    For the spirit of youth has wafted over us.

  2. And has it visited the trail of Layla's hems by night?

    For it has come with perfumed garments.

  3. And has it sipped from her front teeth, so that now

    it speaks of delectable nectar?

  4. It passes us and leaves us swaying, drunk,

    as though we never sober from wine.

  5. Its breeze is like the complaint of a yearning lover,

    a man of refinement, gentle in reproach.

  6. Ask it whether it has a passion for Najd,

    and so has softened with an afflicted lover's tenderness.

  7. May a lingering raincloud water Najd and its people,

    its thunder matching the length of my sobbing.

  8. And may time never cease to be spring there,

    its flowers embroidering the robes of the hills.

  9. Fragrant—you never tire of breathing it in—

    as though its air were the breath of full-breasted maidens.

  10. At its watering place the thirsty heart finds its fill,

    as though its water held the coolness of sweet saliva.

  11. When, grieving in its dwellings, we mingle

    the silver of tears with molten gold,

  12. our bodies travel upon mounts,

    while our souls flow over the dust.

  13. How many there have lost a heart,

    and found a soul ablaze!

  14. Longingly toward the palms of al-Nakhil they yearn,

    and beneath us the narrow-eyed riding camels rumble.

  15. And we kiss a lightning-flash from the passes of al-Jidhʿ,

    taking it for the mouths of Banu Hisab.

  16. My life be ransom for a family that captured my sleep

    and lodged between my heart and departure.

  17. Nobles whose eagles fasten

    eagle eggs to the feathers of arrows.

  18. Their hands brandish supple serpents,

    and their horses prance bearing forest lions.

  19. When they put on armor, you would think within it

    the stars of night were drowning in a mirage.

  20. How many a moon you see shining among them,

    and a midmorning sun concealed behind a veil,

  21. and a fawn's dawn hidden beneath a headscarf,

    and another dawn breathing within a face veil;

  22. and palms, with tears or fresh blood,

    stained, and others colored with henna.

  23. And how many—in their women's cheeks and the hands

    of their horsemen—are the meteors that blaze!

  24. Their mouths held wine, and so were fashioned

    their front teeth in the pattern of bubbles.

  25. The tooth-stick almost grows drunkenly riotous within them

    when it draws a sip of saliva from them.

  26. They seem, when over them flare

    their incense burners, suns amid mist.

  27. The cooing birds yearn whenever they sway,

    preferring them to tender boughs.

  28. They are my wine, my sweet basil, and my soul,

    and my gardens of paradise, though they are my torment;

  29. my health, my ailments, and my healing,

    my joys, my sorrow, and my dejection.

  30. They departed, and youth departed with them;

    will they ever return to us?

  31. How long shall I petition the days concerning them?

    Yet they have not listened or given me an answer.

  32. I seek refuge from time and from their separation

    with the lord of glory, the revered master,

  33. the man of lofty honor, Abu Husayn,

    Ali of glory, endowed with wondrous qualities.

  34. He exhausts wealth in the deserts of giving,

    the winner of the race on the day of striving.

  35. Pure of soul, praised for his character,

    his honor protected, his presence acclaimed.

  36. Mighty, with cauldrons firmly fixed,

    with bowls like cisterns facing them.

  37. Eloquent, with no equal to his speech,

    even had the Mother of the Book conceived him.

  38. A meteor on the frontiers, praised

    on the day of war by the tongues of spears.

  39. His armies march, and terror almost makes

    the firmly rooted hills sway.

  40. Lightning-flashes meet him sheathed,

    and clouds accompany him within the pavilions.

  41. At the sight of him, the army knows

    he will muster it in the bellies of wolves.

  42. And the lion believes, when it meets him,

    that its grave will be the belly of a raven.

  43. When he brandishes the straightened spear, you imagine within it

    a serpent's poison flowing from his might.

  44. Generous, he fashioned from white-handed favors

    his rings and the necklaces about necks.

  45. He beautified the face of exalted deeds with generosity,

    and made its cheek rosy with the blood of combat.

  46. And from the musk of dust he raised clouds,

    their lightning-gleams dyed with saffron perfume.

  47. His noble deeds travel through every land,

    as though his right hand were the clouds' reservoir.

  48. His favors teach us rhymes,

    so these pearls come from that surging sea.

  49. His nature grew sweet, yet he was fierce in valor,

    and he became a blend of honey and bitter sap.

  50. He brought blessings and misery among creation:

    such is the nature of low-lying clouds.

  51. He brings his ally a following shower of bounty,

    and toward his enemies the thunderbolt of punishment.

  52. He sees the eagles on the enemies' banners,

    when they flutter, as the wings of flies.

  53. He surpasses Abu al-Sahab in ancestry and generosity,

    when it is said, 'This is the son of Abu Turab.'

  54. His own resolves set his steeds speeding,

    as ants set eagle-wings speeding.

  55. He has a sharp sword, a dawn in the night of calamity,

    and a fang amid misfortunes that never fails to strike.

  56. His ants hunt ferocious lions,

    and he captures birds of prey with flies.

  57. And judgments as piercing as his arrows,

    nocked to attain what is right;

  58. and deeds upon the blackness of nights,

    like the white forehead-blazes of marked Arabian steeds.

  59. O son of those who won honor and dominion

    over the world through merit and descent!

  60. You have indeed split the heads of calamities,

    and led the stubborn, harsh reversals of fate.

  61. You bereaved the treasuries, which now lament

    the child adorned with a pouch for an earring.

  62. The house of bounty lay empty; you appeared there

    like treasure appearing in a ruined town.

  63. May a noble Eid gladden you, my lord,

    bringing tidings of reward for your fasting.

  64. So greet with joy the face of Eid al-Fitr,

    smiling to reveal its sweet front teeth.

  65. Meeting it is like meeting a beloved

    who tenderly comes visiting after avoidance.

  66. The luster of good tidings unveiled a crescent

    that appeared like a sword without a sheath:

  67. a crescent that ripped sorrow's collar off us

    with its claw, and bit it with a fang;

  68. a love-smitten one that, when it seeks to depart,

    is turned back by longing, yearning toward you.

  69. It came to you across the distance, wasted and weary,

    as though, for the sight of you, it bore what I bear.

  70. So endure in glory as long as hearts yearn

    for their homelands in a house of exile.

  71. And may the hands of your bounty never cease to make flow

    versified speech through the scattering of pearls.

  72. And may the decrees of fate ever ordain for you

    what you desire, until the Day of Reckoning.

Sol 6.1