1. Here is gray hair, reproaching you; so come to your senses.

    And leave him if he has not come to his senses.

  2. For it has indeed curbed the anguish of the tormented

    and soothed the longing of the lovesick.

  3. Umm Amr reproached us for loving her;

    have you heard of a reproacher who is beloved?

  4. And she saw a lock of hair touched by

    grayness, and was alarmed at darkness amid sunrise.

  5. By my life, were it not for the daisies, I would

    see the lovely gardens as unlovely.

  6. And the blackness of eyes, if not beautified

    by whiteness, would not be beloved.

  7. And blending tawny wine with water is better suited

    to a pleasing morning draught and an evening one.

  8. What night is made splendid without stars?

    Or what cloud yields rain without lightning?

  9. A pause in al-Aqiq: I cast off a burden

    of my tears by pausing in al-Aqiq.

  10. Leaning among still-visible dwelling-sites,

    which draw longing from a heart held fast by love.

  11. I restrain my eye from weeping over them, while the pale

    camels take every road toward the goal.

  12. And they glimpsed Muhammad ibn Humayd:

    no distant wealth is beyond reach.

  13. Outstripping the dust, he draws on a soul's utmost strength,

    urged to greater effort like one left behind.

  14. Hands have long tested him; and for the

    racecourse, fine steeds are worn lean through sweating.

  15. Whenever mankind set racers running, he came to the fore,

    steeped in virtues like saffron perfume.

  16. He is never without thought on some great

    aspect of his glory, or some subtle one.

  17. He strings glory as a necklace is strung

    by the hand of a skillful, delicate craftsman.

  18. Passion lifts him above abasement, and

    concern raises him above timidity.

  19. Each day I receive from him a gift

    untouched by any muddy cloudiness.

  20. A first is with him, a second with me,

    from his bounty, and a third is on the road.

  21. He gives a supple, slender-waisted youth, like a

    peacock in beauty, and a noble steed like a sailing vessel.

  22. O Abu Nahshal, whenever the thirsty man cries

    in anguish, with a drowning man's cry—

  23. my hope for the boy was once a boy;

    now it is middle-aged through postponement and delay.

  24. And the thoroughbred steed—you put me off

    about it, for no reason, with an old promise.

  25. And your gifts beyond obligation number the

    sands of Alij; what then of rightful dues?

  26. Pure as the hearts of true

    friends, delicate in the delicate imagining of them.

  27. If you examined them, you would draw from them

    a thousand traits stolen from Hatim.

  28. They were taken through generosity, by force; and sometimes

    a miser's bounty is obtained through good fortune.

  29. I do not count their recipient, when I think

    of them and him, as lucky.

  30. With them, the distant remained like the close

    favored one, and the enemy like the friend.

  31. Like piled-up clouds, he gave abundantly and watered

    every valley in the land and every peak.

  32. My friends are with me in wealth; but when I return

    to need, you are my friend.

  33. I wear a blessing from you; I do not deem

    wearing out ever fitting for it.

  34. If one calls it adornment, it is an ornament of pure

    gold; and if lightness, then fragments of agate.

  35. It raised my standing and sharpened my tongue,

    and spread my fame and moistened my mouth.

  36. Indeed, Nabhan has always been, with Atud,

    like a brother who has won his brother's affection.

  37. The war of discord brought us together in concord,

    though it is the beginning of discord and division.

  38. We are your comrades and your brothers when

    one band becomes a thousand bands.

  39. Like two companions within the companion pair of Aja

    and Salma, who never rushed into disloyalty.

  40. They brought us together: you are like the Pleiades,

    our townsfolk, while we are like Capella.

  41. Amid great hosts that bellow and neigh, unheard

    and unheeded went my braying.

  42. A homeland where noble qualities grow,

    between running water and leafy boughs.

  43. Of Aja: the well is not deep

    on its hills, and the palms are not towering.

  44. Where lips are found not drooping

    from thirst, and teeth not jutting out.

  45. Our swords have stitched it shut, though it is a frontier

    among its enemies, full of breaches.

Sol 6.1