Sol 5.6

  1. What bounty lies between the moist soil and the hard earth!

    What pliant nobility, and what unbending judgment!

  2. O son of Abū Rubayyiʿ, from

    your death-day the world faced a day of anguish.

  3. It tore the collars of men who, had they been able,

    would have torn what lay beyond the collars.

  4. Though far away, you were near; and now,

    despite your nearness, you are no longer near.

  5. The delegations of every land departed from his grave

    empty-handed, their hearts brimful.

  6. Now you know what a loss you have suffered; for only

    after sunset is the loss of the sun understood.

  7. Whenever a traveler whose homeland was far away came to him,

    he alighted beside a pool and a fertile valley bend.

  8. The forelegs of the pale camels brought him near a courtyard

    as though it were the stranger’s birthplace.

  9. Hopes darkened after him

    and were stripped of every beauty and sweetness.

  10. They had been cheeks, burnished for a time;

    today they have become the dwelling place of pallor.

  11. How many a need became a mount through him,

    though before him it had not been fit to ride.

  12. He loosed its two hobbles, just as

    the south wind looses rain from the raincloud’s knots.

  13. Whenever we sought him in pursuit of some request,

    he was a well—or the well’s own rope.

  14. And many a favor of his I donned like a robe,

    as though it were the bright border of a new garment.

Sol 5.6