Sol 5.6

  1. How many an eye stands between Mayya and me—an eye I must beware—

    fearsome, and a tongue terrifying and sharp!

  2. Yet her phantom never ceases visiting me by night

    after slumber, nor does it cease seeking me.

  3. Tell those who reproach me over Mawiya: be ashamed—

    for never shall I be ashamed of loving her.

  4. Loyalty toward her has become a trait among her people,

    keeping her far from false speech and lies.

  5. She does not deceive her kinsman when she speaks to him,

    nor ever enter a place of suspicion.

  6. For love of her I opposed my people, whom you know;

    alas for my bewilderment today between Turks and Arabs!

  7. They said, “Confound you! Do you seek kinship among them?”

    Far from it—you have no lineage among the Bedouin Arabs.

  8. I replied—while poetry’s masterpieces attest my lineage—

    “But for the Bedouin Arabs, I would indeed be stripped of my literary art.

  9. Then no far-ranging ode would ever have sprung from me,

    woven of rhymes that shake the earth with their clamor—

  10. one of those marked poems that I launched

    at kings as quarry, never missing and never failing.

  11. O son of caliphs, they bequeathed every glorious virtue,

    lofty and towering; they vanished, but it did not.

  12. Surely you arose among us at God’s command, keeping watch,

    warding our enemies from every lookout where they lie in wait.

  13. Many an afflicted man—you treated his affliction

    with the Mashrafi blade, without acting unjustly or showing favoritism.

  14. Indeed, were the caliph’s firm resolves ever struck

    by Time’s calamities—Time, lord of vicissitudes—they would not recoil.

  15. Glad tidings for the pilgrims when the steamship bears them along,

    tomorrow making them forget the journey of noble she-camels—

  16. camels that complain of weariness and sore feet if forced to trot,

    and those whose limbs have been weakened by trotting.

  17. This Caliphate’s soul is content and has become

    joyful; but for you it would neither rejoice nor be content.

Sol 5.6