Sol 6

  1. O you who have forgotten my pledge, while I have not forgotten,

    Those who reproach me for you are no true people to me.

  2. My passion for you has become a plain description of me,

    And my tears flow beyond measure.

  3. Alas for my tears: they clothed my body in wasting,

    And brought me a cupful of sorrows.

  4. The reproacher said when he saw them flowing,

    “What harm is there in your stopping for an hour?”

  5. Enough of your words, reproacher; do not increase

    The fire of grief with repeated breaths.

  6. Such is the custom in love: those before me lived

    With it, then passed into their graves.

  7. Love seized ʿUrwa, and I followed him;

    It seized ʿĀmir too, and I built upon his foundation.

  8. What would it cost the smiling lightning if it

    Told ʿAbbās the story of my inward anguish?

  9. For him, a Nile of tears flashed forth in Syria,

    Set flowing by the memory of the dwellings at al-Miqyās.

  10. May Egypt’s dwellings be watered, inhabited

    By stars upon the horizon or gazelles in their lairs.

  11. For its sake, I would give myself for a town where

    I endure so many spurts and streams of tears.

  12. A homeland for which I stayed awake and my hair turned gray;

    Its love rests sweetly upon my eyes and head.

  13. Who can restore it to me, when the state of things was not stagnant

    Or turbid, and fortune’s kindness was not harsh?

  14. When the eye would behold a gentle gazelle

    By the Nile, rather than a bull at Bāniyās?

  15. Life was an ornament through which there often swayed

    The graceful forms of every slender, lissome beauty.

  16. Then that time passed, and nothing of its ornaments

    Remained with me except anxious thoughts.

  17. Against my will, mourning rose for it

    In my house, while others won their weddings.

  18. Such are fortunes: live with them, and do not say,

    “I live by my reason or by my senses.”

  19. The hidden sides of affairs became clear to my thought,

    But the workings of fortune remain obscure.

  20. Congratulations on your fortune, Damascus, in a ruler

    Through whom hope feels safe from despair:

  21. The chief judge—a rank

    Purified of stains by his noble leadership.

  22. He has a house around which hope circles, answering the call,

    Summoning glory to generosity and courage.

  23. His descent from the Helpers adorned its sky

    With descendants who serve as guards among guards,

  24. Shining, when circumstances grow dark,

    Like the light of dawn in the last darkness of night;

  25. And guarding from reproach a precious inheritance

    Of the Prophet, with breaths fragrant as musk;

  26. And preserving sacred law, whether as a horseman

    Or seated to judge among people.

  27. They passed on, yet joined their glory to ʿAlī

    Through their own ʿAlī; marvel at the fine wordplay.

  28. He wears piety in name and in deeds;

    See what a splendid garment virtue gives him.

  29. He enriches people; in his court, nothing falls idle

    Except records of insolvency.

  30. He hastens benefits freely, unlike one

    Who dithers and calculates endlessly.

  31. He renews learning, for whose sake

    Students have strapped on their worn saddle gear.

  32. He arrived in Syria, and generous hands shone forth,

    While justice proceeded by the true measure.

  33. Judgments appeared as clear as the midday sun,

    And fortune’s bent yielded after its stubbornness.

  34. In his rule, judgments rose above any critic:

    Words shining like a lamp.

  35. Steadfast, he lets his enemies’ words pass over him

    As winds pass over a lofty, rooted mountain.

  36. With schools where the sciences displayed their beauty,

    And generosity that eclipsed the Banū Mirdās.

  37. Between the nobles and his pure coin there lies

    The difference between Egyptian silver and copper.

  38. In his hand is the pen, its arrow aimed true

    On the day of generosity and learning, upon the page.

  39. A pen that attests to the primacy of his merit

    And delights us with its Abbasid emblem.

Sol 6