أتلك حدوج أم نجوم سوائر — Al Tohami

Are those camel-litters—or wandering stars?

And are those beauties among them—or gazelles?

Full moons whom separation struck without warning;

indeed, one is surprised by what one fails to guard against.

They wander lovesick for Badr; yet journeying and departure

are decreed for the full moon—will you then be patient?

He bears upon his brow a blaze from the radiance of kindled dawn,

and tresses from the pitch-black darkness of night.

Have you not seen my cavalry, while the stars appeared

upon the night’s deep gloom like bewildered wanderers?

They surged toward him as one surges toward right guidance,

while his ascendancy summons some to him and champions him.

Fear of Abu al-Nada exacts its due from his enemies,

and his awe achieves what whole tribes cannot.

Whenever he appears before kingdoms, they scatter

their crowns and helmets upon their carpets.

Kings fall prostrate before him when they behold him,

even though the lances stand interlocked in battle.

Then, after kissing the earth, they kiss his fingertips—

when before him even swelling seas have dashed together.

Fingertips in which generosity has cast its anchors,

settling there as a traveler lays down his staff.

He is the king, the sea, of whom mankind has said:

If I do not dwell beside him, beside whom shall I dwell?

So I laid down my saddle with him, in the keeping of a blessed man,

bountiful in all he desires and all he stores.

Far-reaching in ambition, near in bounty, a cloud pouring gifts;

his generosity dwells at home, while his glory travels abroad.

He attained the heights at the very outset—for

clashing lances strike first with their foremost points.

If the spear’s foremost joints do not serve you,

amid terror its hinder parts will be of no avail.

He delivers the mighty thrust whose reach no purpose can attain,

even if the lances themselves were probing instruments.

You see him as though the spear were a thread in his palm

on battle-morning, while the armored warriors are jewels:

he turns the spear-shafts into forearms,

and the links of fine Indian mail upon them into bracelets.

Those spears have watering places among warriors’ jugular veins,

and outlets through the chests of renegades.

They deliberately seek the hearts’ innermost cores, as though

their movements beside those hearts were conscious thoughts.

When he calls, lions of the house of al-Mufarrij answer him—

lions whose claws are the gleaming blades of swords.

His sons are stars—Shams al-Din among them—

and Husam is a full moon, radiant among the stars.

I saw them as a necklace; but Abu al-Nada

is its central bead, while all the rest are jewels.

In valor they resemble Shams Din Allah, just as

the cubs of laired lionesses resemble the lions of al-Shara.

You see him listening intently to white swords ringing upon helmets,

as though the resonance of the cutting blades were lutes.

In lineage and noble qualities he stands at the heart of Tayy,

as pupils stand at the center of beautiful faces.

The lands encompass him on every side,

as the eye-sockets enclose the eyes.

Al-Ta’i has not died, while Husam lives forever;

none absent from among them is absent while he is present.

From the bounty of his two hands they had one benefactor before;

now, from the bounty of yours, they have another.

Were Hatim of Tayy to see what you are building,

he would say: Thus are eminence and noble deeds built.

By your sword Tayy attained what, had it merely

wished for it, imagination itself could never have reached.

A youth of yours taught it to kill kings and take them captive—

a young man skilled in hunting horsemen.

From the abundance you bestowed, he gave freely at the outset;

and after the sun is gone, the radiant stars remain.

The days themselves may thank you for adorning them,

though not everyone upon whom good is done is grateful.

You have never ceased to be a treasure and resource for the Imam;

every Imam has his resources and treasures.

But when what was destined came to pass, his heart grew desolate—

for you confer great benefit and, when you wish, inflict harm.

You appoint an Imam, then can dismiss his peer;

though you may be called a subordinate, you are the commander.

The lineages of kings are ennobled whenever

a bond or tie of kinship with you appears for them.

He subdues whichever of them contests his sovereignty,

and the one most entitled to rule is he who conquers.

The Yemeni sword gives you victory over them,

for the Yemeni ever grants victory to the Yemeni.

Therefore even its blunted edge cuts keenly in your hands,

while sharp blades recoil in the hands of anyone but you.

Divine favor encompasses you from every direction,

and glad tidings come to you from every land.

Every caliph entrusts command to you;

so advance and hold back like one who takes no orders.

When your enemies loathed my name and turned away

in flight from it, the pulpits yearned for it.

I am only a garden: if you rain upon it,

this praise will become radiant, blossoming flowers.

If an evening cloud from the bounty of your favors rains upon me,

an early shower from your right hand has already captured me.

Indeed, I hope to attain, from wealth,

through my poetry, what no poet has ever possessed.

Whenever I conceal praise within the folds of my speech,

generosity, when my speech folds it away, finds in me one who unfolds it.

So live for the lifetime of my praise of you; indeed, my panegyrics

are immortal so long as anyone remains upon the earth.

You sought the heights through fortune and earnest striving—both are manifest—

and your share of both companions is abundant.

You are like a magnet for every virtue:

no excellence exists but that it journeys toward you.