1. O Fadl, why this shunning and anger?

    Or why is the cord of friendship severed?

  2. Or why abandon one consumed with love for you,

    whom you continually drive away while he draws near?

  3. Is this for a fault? I shall never return to it,

    as long as crosswinds follow the north wind.

  4. Or has a secret foe plotted against me and kindled

    before you a fire that blazes with lies?

  5. O Fadl, you have made my enemies gloat over me, and

    given them more against me than they sought:

  6. your turning from me, and a coldness that arose

    from a companion whose affection ruin swept away.

  7. He was a friend, then became a mere acquaintance

    afterward: thus do hearts change.

  8. Indeed, I shall weep for him as long as there blinks

    an eye, and as long as its streaming tears flow—

  9. the weeping of a grieving woman over a child,

    when anxious concern and tender care availed her nothing.

  10. I lament a living man whose affection has died,

    at times, and at times I sob over him.

  11. The radiance of his love's fire dimmed and faded,

    though once his fire had a flame.

  12. I used to come to him to offer greetings, and no

    curtains barred me from meeting him.

  13. He used to show affection and honor,

    when we shared friendship's watering-place by turns,

  14. when I stood at the height of a rank

    for which the Arabs once honored me.

  15. The skies of kings spread their shade over me,

    their rains were silver and gold,

  16. in a life of ease and a kingdom's shade,

    where the milk we drew once flowed pure.

  17. Until, when time grew difficult for me—

    and time's reversals have their turns among us—

  18. the door of friendship was shut against me, as though

    no bond had existed between him and me.

  19. O companion whose change I never feared,

    this is not how a man of good breeding acts.

  20. What has befallen me? I had placed my hopes in my friend,

    hoped for his help, and waited expectantly.

  21. I hasten to you, covering my foot with dust;

    longing drives me, then you hide yourself

  22. from me, as though, when I come to you

    to offer greetings, I were an old, mangy she-camel.

  23. There are your harsh doorkeepers: when I seek

    permission, they snarl at me or scowl.

  24. No recompense for speaking of you in terms

    beyond the reach of descriptions and orations

  25. is this, by my life! And a noble man will not accept

    humiliation, even when his wealth is scant.

  26. O Fadl, I will not endure coldness, while I have

    ample room on earth and space to roam.

  27. Far from it, far from it! I will not be abased, while I have

    wide alternatives to the one who shunned me.

  28. A firmly planted nabʿ tree keeps me—

    no wood-borer has marred it, nor heart-rot—

  29. from bearing anything whose endurance is degrading,

    until the dust hides my bones.

  30. O Fadl, I have a tongue with which I speak,

    sword-sharp, keen whenever I brandish it.

  31. A longstanding bond of respect holds me back from you,

    and a friendship unstained by falsehood.

  32. How many an enemy's nose I have rubbed in the dust

    for your sake; how often anger stirred me for you

  33. against men who, whenever they disparaged

    you, a wager lay between them and me.

  34. If people were judged by their deeds,

    you would be the one I selected and chose.

  35. I would make you the one-share arrow among their gaming lots,

    when they were shuffled, even if they grew angry.

  36. Yet I see myself cast aside before you;

    I am rebuffed despite my claim to respect, and I keep away.

Sol 6.1