1. Turn toward Layla's dwelling, that we may greet it.

    Yes, and ask it about some of its people.

  2. O deserted campsite, the wind has wrestled with you for your beauty,

    Spending the night now spreading it out, now folding it away.

  3. May you ever be clothed in ample robes of rain,

    Which lightning sometimes lights and weaves.

  4. Its evening clouds come with heavy rain close at hand

    Upon your dwelling-grounds, or its morning clouds come at dawn.

  5. Indeed, the stingy woman did not grant her petitioner a favor

    On the day at the dune, nor heed the one who called her.

  6. She passed, swaying, both near and far:

    For estrangement keeps her distant, while her dwelling brings her near.

  7. Were it not for the blackness of a sideburn that will not surrender me

    To reason, my soul would have been assailed by its afflictions.

  8. I sometimes visit the lovely, tender maiden by night, in full command

    Of youth; she beguiles me, and I beguile her.

  9. On a night whose end the dawn cannot reach,

    I grew fond of wine, being served it and serving it in turn.

  10. I exchanged cups with her, tender-limbed and slender;

    I drank wine from her hand, and from her mouth.

  11. O you who have seen the pool, so lovely to behold,

    And the charming maidens when their dwellings come into view:

  12. It is enough for it, such is the excellence of its rank,

    To be counted first, with the sea second to it.

  13. Why does the Tigris, like a jealous woman, rival it

    In beauty at times, and at others boast against it?

  14. Has she not seen Islam's guardian protecting it

    From reproach, and the builder of glory building it?

  15. As though it were Solomon's jinn who undertook

    Its creation, making its details exquisitely fine.

  16. So, if Bilqis happened to pass by it,

    She would say, by analogy and comparison, “It is the palace.”

  17. Delegations of water descend into it in haste,

    Like horses breaking free of their handler's tether.

  18. As though white silver were pouring

    From ingots, flowing through its channels.

  19. When the east wind passes over it, it reveals rippled patterns,

    Like breastplates with polished edges.

  20. So the sun's radiance sometimes laughs with it,

    And the first fall of rain sometimes weeps with it.

  21. When the stars show themselves along its sides

    At night, you would think a sky had been set within it.

  22. The fish confined within it cannot reach its farthest limit,

    So great is the distance between its far and near sides.

  23. They swim in it with winged midsections,

    Like birds shaking their secondary feathers in the air.

  24. They have a spacious courtyard in its depths,

    When they descend, and a hall in its upper reaches.

  25. Inclining toward the dolphin's likeness, they are reassured

    By its sidelong glance, its two eyes aligned with them.

  26. The sight of it suffices its farthest gardens,

    In place of clouds with their spouts unfastened.

  27. As though, when it pours forth without ceasing,

    It were the caliph's hand, when its valley flows.

  28. And what added beauty beyond its existing beauty

    Was that his name, when spoken, is among its names.

  29. Surrounded by gardens where you always see

    The peacocks' plumage—they imitate it, and it imitates them.

  30. And by two platforms, like the two Shi‘ra stars, set

    One opposite the other, rivaling it in height.

  31. When the achievements of the Commander of the Faithful appear

    Before those who describe them, no description comes close to them.

  32. Indeed, when the caliphate's pulpit thrilled

    With Ja‘far, it was granted its utmost wishes.

  33. He showed humility when he attained it, out of piety

    On his part; it attained him, and gloried proudly in him.

  34. When the world reveals itself to him in its finery,

    The world sees its own beauties as its flaws.

  35. O son of the gravelly valleys, from a land whose gravelly valleys

    At glory's summit stand higher than its hills.

  36. God has not forsaken, in desert or town,

    A people whose shepherd you are through kindness.

  37. And a nation angered by the ugliness of oppression

    For so long is now pleased by the beauty of justice.

  38. You spread bounty among it, increasing the number of the

    Lofty deeds, and extolled generosity's name with high praise.

  39. You have always been an ocean to our petitioners; how much more, now that

    You have met us, and the world with all it holds is yours?

  40. God gave it to you by right, deeming you

    Worthy of it; and you bestow it in keeping with God's right.

Sol 6.1