Sol 6

  1. They frightened him, and he turned away angry.

    Do you know how gazelles take fright?

  2. She was created carefree and delicate;

    even a passing breeze might startle her.

  3. I have a beloved who, whenever something is said to him,

    believes the tale and lends weight to suspicion.

  4. The reproachers lied in what they claimed;

    my hope in my enchanting beloved has not proved false.

  5. If they saw us, with love as our third companion,

    while darkness drew its veils around us,

  6. sheltered by night and under its protection,

    we would ask the dawn not to come near.

  7. Our two cloaks were filled with chastity and love;

    beauty was preserved, and I upheld propriety.

  8. O gazelle with whom the heart is filled:

    my heart is your hillside, and its curve your playground.

  9. Take whatever you wish of its affection:

    a sweet watering place and a pleasant pasture.

  10. It belongs to the one who has the stronger claim to own it;

    how can I complain that it has been taken from me?

  11. If he wishes, he spares what he owns;

    or, if he wishes, he destroys it and counts it as his due.

  12. You have a figure before which the willow bowed,

    and the hills wished they could bear it.

  13. And you have glances of such enchantment

    that the eyelid gathers arrows and blades.

  14. My heart once had no need of this;

    what has my heart to do with love after youth?

  15. I cannot hold my heart to account for my nature:

    the poet was made generous and full of delight.

  16. Were they to unveil your beauty or sing of it,

    Labīd would fall in love at eighty.

  17. O soul, you labor in vain;

    have you ever found life to be anything but play?

  18. Try the world, and you will find it small:

    the world matters least to those who have tried it.

  19. You have gained what you could of its outward show

    and been granted lasting remembrance and renown.

  20. In this world of mine or in the next,

    I am the Poet of the Nile, and that title suffices me.

  21. I shall come to al-Kawthar, yet

    I find no water sweeter than the Nile.

  22. Honor, lord of Egypt, honor

    the young man at this brilliant gathering.

  23. However you wish, you stand alone in eminence,

    now through lineage and now through merit.

  24. If the rulers of the world are counted,

    you are best in ancestry and noblest in descent.

  25. Spread knowledge and unite a nation

    that has represented the Arabs before the world.

  26. Each day brings a sign showing

    that knowledge holds strength and victory.

  27. Were they to build a kingdom above the faint star Suhā,

    you would find knowledge its supporting tent rope.

  28. Knowledge is people's ladder to glory

    when they seek a ladder and a means to reach it.

  29. Lord, by the Emigration, by the one who called for it,

    and by those among his companions who emigrated,

  30. make this year a source of joy for Islam, or

    let Islam attain its aim in it.

  31. And grant it favor among nations:

    it was a head when they were tails.

  32. They ruled over it and its riches,

    becoming its people while it became a stranger.

  33. O year, the one time desired from all the years

    that have come in their procession or passed away:

  34. here is the year, and here are its days,

    new, bearing fresh good fortune.

  35. Win them, and live to see their like

    for as many ages as they have hours.

Sol 6