Sol 5.6

  1. Cease your warfare—for I am hostile to you;

    the vanguard of my resolve is not one to turn tail.

  2. I am the man you have known; if, in folly, you test me,

    then I am the one who raises Judgment Day among the reproachers.

  3. Her censure turned upon a man bred by calamity,

    swordlike—stout in endurance, spare of frame.

  4. His days returned to him blackened,

    until he took them for nights.

  5. Do not marvel that the generous man stands bare of riches:

    the torrent is ever the high ground’s foe.

  6. And watch the mounts’ swift trot, urged to full speed

    by the reviver of verse, toward the slayer of wealth.

  7. When we reached al-Hasan’s court, there passed from us

    the stubborn, knotted reign of destitution.

  8. Hope opened wide before us, defying calamities

    through which so many hopes had met their doom.

  9. He made poetry’s virgin brides costly: indeed, their dowries

    with the generous man, though the brides be cheap, are dear.

  10. Every expectation of him comes back confirmed,

    and he makes hopes the arbiters of wealth.

  11. Your father’s namesake has, in you, proved true,

    through the noblest benefit and most auspicious omen.

  12. You saw me and asked your own soul for its largesse

    on my behalf; then you gave, never waiting for my plea.

  13. Like rain: whether its cloud is desired

    or not, it has no choice but to pour.

Sol 5.6