Sol 5.6

  1. Halt, all of you, and renew my reproach against the one who deserves reproach.

    How many a sinner longs for pardon!

  2. Halt; turn aside, bend your course toward one possessed by yearning,

    within whose breast a fire blazes and never dies.

  3. Remembrance of the gazelles of al-Ḥimā has barred sleep from my eyes;

    slumber departed from them, but the streaming tears did not.

  4. Ah, for God’s sake—the age in which I suffered bereavement,

    when wine and drinking would greet me at dawn,

  5. and a wild-ass-like, fleet she-camel that flung the pebbles aside—

    a high-bred young one whom tether and company would overtake.

  6. Doom folded her away, and ceaseless night travel swept her off,

    leaving in her neither graceful pace nor strength to pull.

  7. Upon her I crossed through pitch-dark nights and morning light,

    and through the furnace of noon and the shimmering mirage, exhausted,

  8. to a land whose glory springs from the glory of its kings—

    kings of all mankind, non-Arabs and Arabs alike.

  9. There Ṭayyiʾ has towered above Muḍar, and never

    will the mighty men of Taghlib stand against it in war.

  10. He raised up for it an ancient, enduring glory,

    ennobled by spearheads and the keen-edged sword,

  11. and such generosity that beside him we forgot Ḥātim, lord of bounty,

    and a lifespan that, were you to reckon it, no books could contain.

  12. When his horsemen hasten toward a massed army,

    good fortune leads them on, with fear and terror before them.

  13. And if by night he devises a plan against the enemy, he hurls at them

    at dawn a cavalry that neither turns back nor stumbles.

  14. Mounted upon them are men of Ṭayyiʾ when they glory in their lineage:

    Maʿn is your brother; and as for the maternal line—how noble is Kaʿb!

  15. He marched with them by night toward the chiefs when they had rebelled,

    and they drove against the Imam of the Faith, though he is their very axis.

  16. He struck them in their own abode with an evil morning raid,

    as spear-thrusts and sword-strokes followed one another upon them.

  17. He destroyed the people’s defenders and swept through their land;

    but for him, no calamity would have reached its stronghold.

  18. The lordly Imam has indeed learned that he is

    a man of resolve, whose servants are the seven blazing stars.

  19. I have taken firm hold of the rope of Abū al-Dhawwād,

    and he suffices me, if noble lineage can bring me benefit.

  20. The unbroken succession of his gifts has driven death away from me,

    and his ever-advancing largesse has humbled my enviers.

  21. Thus amid his bounty I go forth morning and evening;

    the sturdy she-camel bears me at dusk, and the reddish mounts at dawn.

  22. Is it not time that he free me from dependence on all mankind?

    For among them no one remains with a heart inside his body.

  23. The paths of liberality have not been trodden, nor has any man of mettle

    found the road of noble giving in our Syria.

  24. So be peerless in glory, O son of Dughfal;

    you are unique: you neither stray nor stoop to youthful folly.

  25. May you remain, Abū al-Dhawwād, for sovereignty and high renown,

    and whoever you hate—may crucifixion assail him at dawn.

  26. Here, then, take these from a poet who champions you:

    the virtues of Ṭayyiʾ, where no slander is spread—

  27. verses that blossomed when they were adorned with your praise,

    surpassing pearls and rubies, for they are their very heart.

  28. When they are recited in an assembly of noble men,

    they fall upon their faces, as when the Lord is mentioned.

Sol 5.6