Sol 6

  1. Your image visits me in memory before sleep.

    Why, then, should I owe sleep another favor?

  2. Your figure stands before my eyes,

    So I guard against a tale bearer’s gossip about you.

  3. By God, I do not close my eyelids to sleep,

    But to cast a veil between you and him.

  4. Who will help me conceal the love within me,

    Or clear me of my enemies’ accusations, if I seek to be cleared?

  5. If a spark from the fire of my heart flew

    To the horizon at night, it would turn its darkness to embers.

  6. For love of you, I spend the night as the star’s companion,

    Though the only wine I drink is the cup of love.

  7. My eyes work the veiled one’s magic for me,

    Raising a full moon from your phantom in the night.

  8. What startles me as night draws its last breath

    At dawn but a puff that breaks the spell?

  9. By God, among the noble women of Uqayl is a precious lady;

    When she departs, my heart becomes her secluded chamber.

  10. Her mouth resembles a necklace; and if morning dew

    Makes her necklaces scant, her necklace resembles her mouth.

  11. A captivating woman fashioned the chains of her temple locks

    Into fetters around the necks of her captive lovers.

  12. She smiles to reveal pearls and speaks their equal;

    I have seen nothing sweeter in verse or prose.

  13. My two friends, turn aside today; let us ask at Wajra

    Its tawny dunes about the tawny gazelle.

  14. Do not feel safe from a jealous guardian who stands between us and her,

    With bright blades and dark spears surrounding both.

  15. It would take only a circuit around her dwelling:

    One man would glare askance, another thrust his spear.

  16. In the encampment, if we visit, are women with braids

    That leave a treacherous mark upon our cheeks.

  17. And women with gleaming teeth; the people think

    They came bearing this truthful good news:

  18. The vizierate has been brought to Sharaf al-Din;

    They answer it with mouths full of pearls.

  19. They rejoice in a master to whom, since time began, its Lord has entrusted

    Judgment and command more fully than to anyone else.

  20. You see his breast as a sea and his fingers as rain;

    His character is a garden, his manners its blossoms.

  21. The fine praise people voice in every gathering

    Is a breeze whose scent the listeners pass along.

  22. He rules people with generosity and might, leaving

    Neither benefit nor harm for time to hold over them.

  23. It is strange that some people worship time

    When they have seen the master who has made time his servant.

  24. The sky of his eminence shades the people of the world,

    And his virtues bring forth shining stars.

  25. He spends his guarded wealth and wins the heights;

    One who seeks the maiden gives more than the bride price.

  26. He is the breast, and Islam is the heart it holds;

    For every heart must rest within a breast.

  27. The vizierate came to him, while other men came seeking it;

    They gained stature through it, and it gained stature through him.

  28. The offenses of events against us had been many;

    When he came, they found bonds to restrain them.

  29. I marvel that he shows us humility,

    While a glance from his eye makes us proud.

  30. He is brother to a lofty peak at the summit of glory;

    His steed’s talons tread upon the eagle.

  31. After letters, he sends battalions to visit his foes;

    The lion, too, follows its fang with its claw.

  32. A bold man whose most hidden stratagem stuns his enemies;

    What then when he warns of his greatest blow?

  33. He comes with bright, polished swords

    That flicker like red tongues on the day of terror,

  34. And blue spearheads on dark shafts; when the swords strike

    The horses, they turn their black coats chestnut.

  35. A vizier whose days have become a refuge for guidance;

    How many others’ ministries have been a burden!

  36. How could injustice be feared during his rule

    When his name once made even Kisra renowned for justice?

  37. Nushirwan and justice have returned to the people

    At a time when Nushirwan and justice had passed away.

  38. Time has echoed a verse that God fashioned alone,

    Returning its opening in artful fashion at its close.

  39. The Messenger of God loved him exceedingly,

    And took pride in the days of the man who shares his name.

  40. Otherwise, what would explain his great pride

    In an age when the earth was filled with unbelief?

  41. Rather, he knew that people would see

    Through Abu Nasr’s sword a victory for the faith of guidance.

  42. He prayed, and God answered by letting his name precede him

    And keeping him as a treasure for his community.

  43. Greetings to you, noble man of open countenance,

    Who has turned time’s frowns into smiles for the hopeful.

  44. Frequent visits guide those who come knocking to him;

    Even birds know their nest.

  45. You see the earth as a book, its lines formed by delegations

    Traveling to him; wherever you turn, you see travelers.

  46. When the white camels bring a delegation to him,

    Their smiling mouths hasten to kiss the camels’ feet in thanks.

  47. When we resolved to head for his court,

    And fortune charged at us, we told it, ‘Enough!’

  48. I folded a page of desert on my way to him;

    You would take the riders’ mounts across it for a line of writing.

  49. If the open waste became a student’s book,

    My constant folding and unfolding would wear it out.

  50. How long shall I spend evenings and mornings wandering,

    Deceived by my age and its people—though you are above such deception?

  51. I stretch out my hopes in error and count them

    As wealth in my ignorance, though life has passed its midpoint.

  52. Time is cross eyed and flawed: its reckoning

    Makes people’s odd numbers even and their even numbers odd.

  53. I have a tongue that, in my youth,

    Was a sharp sword, with fine speech engraved upon its blade.

  54. Since my hair turned gray, my poetry too has aged, and my thoughts have failed me

    Because of the distractions of uncertain times.

  55. Who will give me the leisure and means

    To dye both my hair and my poetry?

  56. To the brave Sharaf al-Din our mounts carried us,

    On a journey they had never before had reason to praise.

  57. Whoever seeks riches from anyone else has lost his way;

    The most naive person seeks bounty from lesser men.

  58. So show us kindness; may God keep your shade broad above us,

    For you are best able to aid a free man.

  59. You have long raised the price of the poetry I recite;

    Only generosity can raise poetry’s worth.

  60. In your time I hope to rise so high

    That, when I recite verse, I see Sirius beneath me.

  61. Take this poem: in the ear it becomes a thing and its opposite,

    An earring to one listener, deafness to an envious one.

  62. Entrusted to you, it offers itself to its husband

    And asks no bride price but one worthy of him.

  63. This meeting with you is God’s greatest blessing

    Upon faith and worldly life, if people but knew.

  64. At that meeting I vowed to touch the corner of the House;

    Let me kiss your right hand so I may fulfill my vow.

  65. For a time I accepted life’s bitterness;

    A thirsty man may drink and welcome even bitter water.

  66. But now that I have seen your face turned toward me,

    It is time I ceased drinking murky drops.

  67. Everyone has a day on which he hopes for good fortune;

    This is my day, so lend me your support.

  68. My thoughts had intended to fast forever

    From praising and mentioning kings, not merely for a month.

  69. But my recent sight of your face

    Has made the hopeful faster break his fast.

  70. You arrived with Eid al-Adha, and its arrival came

    Behind you, smiling with the mouth of good fortune.

  71. You both rose as signs of happiness, but you came first;

    You made the feast fortunate, and it followed in your wake.

  72. They said, ‘We see the promised sacrifice, though

    No crescent has adorned its neck like a collar.’

  73. It made up for that missing sign with crescents

    That appeared one after another at his procession.

  74. I said, ‘Rather, it is the master, son of Khalid,

    Whose visitor is entertained with the finest gifts.’

  75. Every day he gives us is a feast whose seasons

    Are complete, as one counts them on all ten fingers.

  76. His face, hand, life, and foes suffice

    For the people’s crescent, the ten days, the feast, and the sacrifice.

  77. May faces of friends and foes be your ransom,

    Crowds mixed like white and yellow coins scattered by a giver.

  78. Every envious man’s mouth is empty of thanks through spite,

    But his eye brims with blood.

  79. Your hand’s generosity has left no region

    Without a drop of its cloud of bounty upon its people.

  80. You received the guests of worry with counsel, as though

    You had split a dark night open with dawn.

  81. For the hardship of a province’s affairs, you sent

    A plan written by pens and turned it to ease.

  82. You are counted on the right hand’s little finger; yet if

    On a day of battle they count you on the left hand’s little finger,

  83. And look again, they will know

    That in the sum of your qualities you contain all mankind.

  84. May all the days of your life remain

    Marked and radiant with your fine deeds.

  85. As you have surpassed all people in eminence,

    So may all their lifetimes be added to yours.

Sol 6