1. Was it aversion that drove her to excess, or coquetry,

    on the day the camels were haltered at Ramah?

  2. She turned away with a bough's sway, and veered

    from close by, as a gazelle veers away.

  3. She knew me when youth had a robe

    still new; then the robe grew threadbare.

  4. And she saw that sober judgment had caught up with me,

    and the reproachers had ceased reproaching me.

  5. If her estrangement comes anew, yet once

    union was new, both for us and for her,

  6. when time's fringes were green and tender,

    and the days' spear-shaft stood straight.

  7. And she has, at the dune beside Huzwa,

    resident companions and an encamped tribe.

  8. The traces and ruined dwellings reminded me

    of youthful passions—remembering them is folly.

  9. Indulging youthful affectation is good sense's ruin,

    and graying at the back of the head is pleasure's death.

  10. Life has grown grievous: gray hair is a mote in

    the eyes of fair women, while youth is beauty.

  11. Grant us your favor—but where is your giving?

    Or promise us; the promise of one like you is a mirage.

  12. I am content if you bestow a word,

    even a false one, or if a phantom of you visits me.

  13. O you who seek to rival al-Fath,

    you have surely tried to attain what cannot be attained.

  14. Where are those noble traits in you, if you seek

    their full reach? And where are those virtues?

  15. The seas cannot be rivaled when the

    tide surges within them, nor can the mountains be matched.

  16. The outstanding, preeminent man is far beyond reach,

    while counterparts and equals draw near.

  17. The reins of command were not surrendered to him until

    men recognized his superiority over them.

  18. Tanukh has raised his glory high,

    so he towers above all others.

  19. He speaks and acts; there is no

    glory in speech until there are deeds.

  20. And sound in generosity among men

    whose natures toward us are ailing.

  21. Steadfast in the charge, when the horsemen have

    room to withdraw from the fallen man's side.

  22. A king in whose counsel sovereignty stands firm,

    and in whose bounty generosity lives.

  23. And when you alight at Abu al-Fadl's dwelling,

    there are generosity and healing.

  24. Rising above calamities, when the stumbling man

    falls amid their reversals and is not helped up.

  25. And straightening the tilt of affairs, though they show

    a swerving from their courses and a turning aside.

  26. Cherishing the caliphate, he does not

    diminish its due or betray it.

  27. Brandishing, in defense of its rights, resolves

    whose dreaded force the heroes shun,

  28. and swords whose flashes are terrors

    to enemies, and whose strokes are death.

  29. Keen-edged blades that, when the dust darkens

    over them, glow and blaze.

  30. Two fresh things are ever renewed upon them:

    blood from his enemy, and burnishing.

  31. Whenever I come to him, I discover glory

    newly won, with room for the gaze to roam.

  32. Where excuses do not turn rightful claims away,

    and asking never precedes giving.

  33. Generous kindness is lacking in all but you,

    and hopes have failed in anyone else.

  34. I am one whom your bounty's dew has drenched, and whom

    your broad and lofty favors have raised.

  35. And favors from you have tended me; they are carried

    fluttering, though they are plentiful and weighty,

  36. filling the earth with mention of you in thanks

    and praise; their course flows freely.

  37. They climb those uplands; in every

    station they have something to say.

Sol 6.1