Sol 6

  1. My two friends, is there a spell of sleep I might borrow,

    so that in dreams of slumber I might invite her to visit?

  2. Had she known that an apparition was kept from reaching us,

    she would have begrudged us what would cost her nothing.

  3. When she veils herself, her face dazzles onlookers

    with light and radiance; what, then, if she unveils?

  4. She does not seek curtains out of need; rather,

    her light, not her curtains, keeps you from her.

  5. Joy to the Khusrawani cloaks, for

    their silk touches the silk of her skin.

  6. Hilali in lineage, remoteness, and brilliance,

    you can visit her only in imagination.

  7. As she travels, women of Sirr Amir surround her:

    moons of darkness whose curtained litters are their halos.

  8. If jewelry adorns other women,

    her necks and throats adorn the jewelry.

  9. In my heart I have a thirst for them

    whose sighs straighten my crooked ribs.

  10. They alighted in a meadow of the uplands, and there smiled

    the mouths of hillside daisies and their own mouths.

  11. The pearls of dew opened the flowers’ eyelids;

    blue-eyed and dark-eyed blooms looked toward us.

  12. Does the supple branch of the moringa know

    that their necks and waists are akin to it?

  13. Who will help an eye whose spring never runs dry,

    and a heart’s burning plain whose heat never cools?

  14. Whenever a thought of Hamda crosses

    my heart, separation almost sends it flying apart.

  15. I ask her to return my soul with her hand;

    but has anyone who borrowed a soul ever returned it?

  16. I long to draw near her land, not for its buildings,

    but because wherever she goes, my heart is her captive.

  17. I weaned my soul from youthful love as a foal is weaned;

    it recoiled at first, then its resolve held firm.

  18. I traveled while black night still had its youth

    across every horizon, and dawn was its first gray hair.

  19. On a tireless, swift-striding mount, so slender

    that its saddle seemed hung upon a crescent moon.

  20. She races and outstrips every lean mount, as though

    her reins were set along the curve of a bow of nab‘ wood.

  21. I imagine the deserts to be pages of scripture,

    and the bloodied camel tracks their decimal marks.

  22. Guiding them through the darkness was the state of guidance,

    the state of Tayy, its sun and its shining light.

  23. On their necks and cheeks we wrote:

    Their journey to anyone but the prince is forbidden.

  24. His gifts are precious; none bestows

    these costly pearls except the necks that bear them.

  25. His speech tells you of his might, just as

    a lion’s roar declares its strength.

  26. The palms of his fingers are for bright blades and bounty,

    while their backs are for kings to kiss.

  27. If a kiss could wear a hand away,

    the knuckles of his hands would vanish and their wear show.

  28. Tayy grants him precedence, though

    even its most weary generous men surpass other men.

  29. The noblest parts of men are their hearts,

    and their mouths are ennobled when they kiss him.

  30. He places the collar of gifts around them; if they shrink

    from gratitude, the collar becomes a shackle around them.

  31. All people seem small beside Tayy,

    and Tayy’s greatest seems small beside the prince.

  32. Every generous man is a lord, yet

    even his abundance falls short of the sea of gifts.

  33. Indeed, Tayy is the face of glory and its eye;

    the noble house of Anin is its eye, and al-Mufarrij its light.

  34. Its earliest branch once rose high through Hatim,

    as its latest has risen through Abu al-Dhawwad.

  35. Were the people of the earth weighed—leave Hatim aside—

    the least finger of his clan would outweigh them.

  36. If you doubt my words, here are

    the gifts of his hands: where is their equal?

  37. Lo, loftiness and glory have an inscription;

    its lines shine on the prince’s face.

  38. No realm exists whose crown does not tremble,

    whose throne does not shake with longing for him.

  39. The timbers of pulpits strut at his name,

    and even their solemn wood rejoices in the preacher’s pride.

  40. Through him the pure Arabs have strongholds

    whose palaces overlook Sirius.

  41. Their battlements are blue spearpoints and lances,

    their pillars are spears, and thrusts and blows their walls.

  42. Through Abu al-Dhawwad’s might, their humbled gained honor,

    their enemies were humbled, and their frontiers secured.

  43. When it is said in battle, ‘Here is Mufarrij,’

    even the best horsemen among the foes flee.

  44. The enemies flee his name before they see his body;

    their muttering is like the roar of savage lions.

  45. The blood of champions adorns his armor’s shoulders

    as perfume adorns a bride’s garments.

  46. With his right hand he cuts even with a dull blade,

    and a short blade grows long in his hands.

  47. So a lion tears through every back with its paw,

    while a keen blade fails in the hands of anyone else.

  48. They speak of swords as masculine only for others,

    when those men’s swords lack his manly support.

  49. A swift steed carries him through blue spearpoints,

    one made for plunging into battle and passing through it.

  50. A north wind when it turns away, a south wind when it comes;

    if it crosses sideways, it is both east and west winds.

  51. Its circling hooves crush pebbles, as though

    their hard tips were the beaks of vultures.

  52. Lost is any affair he does not direct,

    and lost are lines of glory left without him.

  53. Armies go astray if he is not their commander

    in terror, or if their affairs are not brought to you.

  54. For whenever you draw them, they are falcons

    whose hawks snatch away kings’ treasures.

  55. Thus you stand watch for every virtue,

    and every rank leads at last to you.

  56. How could glory elude one so radiant, whose roots contain

    the suns and moons of exalted lineage?

  57. The pride of Tayy refuses to accept a favor

    from anyone but you, or to drive its caravans for another.

  58. They are like lion cubs that never

    eat except what their elder has hunted.

  59. Each of them has a station in glory

    suited to his measure, or a charge he governs.

  60. Their rich man meets you with abundant generosity,

    and their poor man meets you with an open face.

  61. Despite hardship, they pour out the water of their harvest,

    and the bounty of their hands upon whoever visits them.

  62. They welcome guests so warmly that it seems

    their herald has arrived with the guest who has dismounted.

  63. When a petitioner’s breast or courtyard grows cramped,

    their courtyards and hearts are spacious.

  64. They are lions, yet their neighbor is safe from treachery,

    while one who seeks refuge with lions is not safe.

  65. They vie for the honor of high deeds as though they were

    noble brides, with gifts as their dowries.

  66. With favors you revived the dead of Tayy;

    through mention of you, they rise before the Resurrection.

  67. I see glory as a human being, with Qahtan as its heart,

    Tayy as its innermost heart, and you as its very soul.

Sol 6