Sol 5.6

  1. Stay reproach from the heart of the anguished lover,

    and leave off harming him if you cannot help.

  2. Do you imagine that I heed reproach?

    No—by Him who has stopped my ears against it.

  3. By the soul-wrenchers—for they spring from my very soul—

    and by the emissaries—for they spring from my tears.

  4. Never shall the reproachers’ tales be wares

    with me, nor love’s covenant be squandered.

  5. I take sickness as my proof of sorrow;

    if you can, with the jurisprudence of your rebuke, bar that proof.

  6. Reproach is no Qur’an, nor am I a rock,

    that I should become, before it, humbled and split apart.

  7. My father be ransom for a gazelle through whom the breadth of space has narrowed around me,

    in love, though he dwells in a spring meadow within my heart.

  8. He fells lions with a wide, lovely eye—if

    the sabers within its eyelid flash, they cut.

  9. The heart is his locus, and to it have been conjoined

    the clauses of sorrow—how sound the conjunction at that locus!

  10. Dismiss all blame of my unceasing weeping,

    while I recite my death-scene to the people of love.

  11. Sorrow clung to my heart just as praise clung

    to the Chief Justice, father of every virtue—

  12. he whose loftiness judged by its own knowledge,

    not by fortune, nor upon a claimant’s word.

  13. “Peerless,” Time declared of his merit;

    the saying proved true, and the compact of consensus was sealed.

  14. Who can rival the sun in beauty of excellence,

    when by it the varied world subsists?

  15. By God, what storied virtues!

    On the day of boasting, what inspired speech!

  16. And judgment so sound that its qualities need not be feared;

    yet whenever a favor-seeker tries to deceive it, he is deceived.

  17. Through him Aleppo flows with milk for whoever seeks her yield,

    and bends tenderly over the bounty-seeker like a nursing mother.

  18. Glad tidings to you, O homeland whose bond is ancient,

    within the sanctuary of al-ʿAwāṣim, not on al-Ajraʿ’s slope.

  19. The sciences have descended upon your abode; indeed,

    they descended to you from the highest station.

  20. Your dwelling, rich in virtues and delights, has become

    a flowing watercourse, its watering place overflowing,

  21. proud above the foremost cities and their people

    through a most illustrious man, radiant in character, awe-inspiring.

  22. The choicest treasures of his wealth lie freely exposed:

    were a thief to make for them, his hand would not be cut off.

  23. How excellent a refuge for its two seekers—one seeking

    knowledge, the other a freely bestowed gift.

  24. The sea is nothing but his knowledge and his bounty,

    even were it awash with pearls and sweet to drink.

  25. Could al-Shahbāʾ speak, her very station would say:

    “Speak, Muhammad—every boast of yours shall be heard.”

  26. O exemplar of scholars, live on, ever ascending;

    by your command abase whatever you wish—and exalt it.

  27. I swear, the world has brought me back

    to your abode after separation—the finest return.

  28. Hope restored your nearness to me—how blessed

    a sun restored, by hope, to Joshua!

  29. By God, how many storied favors of yours

    I bear—and how much bounty of yours comes rushing!

  30. My poems said to your abundant favors:

    “These praises are my harvest—so sow!”

Sol 5.6