صنت نفسي عما يدنس نفسي — Albohtry

I guarded my soul from what defiles my soul,

and rose above the largesse of every vile man.

I held firm when Time shook me,

seeking my misery and downfall.

I retain scant sustenance from life's last dregs;

the days have diminished it with an unjust short measure.

Far apart are one who comes daily to water,

drinking repeatedly, and one who comes every fifth day.

And it seems Time's inclinations are now carried

along with the basest, the very basest.

My purchase of Iraq was a losing bargain,

after my sale of Syria at a loss.

Do not assay me, seeking to test me,

after this ordeal, lest you find my temper unfamiliar.

Long ago you knew me to possess traits

unyielding toward baseness, wild and untamed.

My cousin has indeed disquieted me,

after gentleness on his part and friendliness.

And when I am shunned, I have good reason

to be seen at dawn elsewhere than where I spend the evening.

Sorrows came to my dwelling, so I directed

my sturdy she-camel toward the White Palace of al-Mada'in.

I turn my thoughts from fortune and grieve

for a ruined dwelling of the House of Sasan.

Successive calamities brought them to my mind;

calamities indeed make one remember and forget.

They lived at ease beneath a lofty shelter,

towering, tiring the eyes and repelling their gaze.

Its gate enclosed Mount al-Qabq,

as far as the two regions of Khilat and Muks.

Dwellings unlike the abandoned traces of Su'da

in barren, smooth expanses of wilderness;

and achievements that, but for my partiality,

the deeds of 'Ans and 'Abs could never equal.

Time has carried their former state away from

freshness, till they became threadbare garments.

And the great palace, for want of companionship

and in its desolation, seems a tomb's structure.

If you saw it, you would know that the nights

had made a funeral gathering there after a wedding.

It tells you of a people's wonders;

no ambiguity clouds the account of them.

And when you see the painting of Antioch,

you take fright amid Romans and Persians.

Death looms there, and Anushirwan

urges the ranks onward beneath the Dirafs banner,

clad in green, upon a yellow steed

strutting in the yellow hue of wars dye.

The men fight before him,

their voices hushed, every sound suppressed.

One thrusts with the working end of a spear,

and another wards the spearhead off with a shield.

The eye declares them truly alive,

exchanging among themselves the gestures of the mute.

My uncertainty about them seethes until

my hands explore them by touch.

Abu al-Ghawth gave me, without stinting,

a furtive draught before the two armies,

of wine you would think a star

that lit the night, or spittle from the sun.

And you see it, when it brings fresh joy

and delight to the drinker who sips it,

as poured into the glass from every heart:

so beloved is it to every soul.

I imagined that Kisra Abarwiz

was sharing cups with me, and al-Balahbadh was my delight.

Is a dream closing my eyes against doubt,

or have wishes changed my judgment and conjecture?

And the iwan, through its wondrous craftsmanship,

seems a cleft in the flank of a lofty, rugged mountain.

In its sadness it seems, when it appears

to the eyes of a morning or evening visitor,

driven by separation from the solace of a companion

held dear, or burdened by divorcing a wife.

The nights reversed its fortune, and overnight

Jupiter within it became a star of ill omen.

It shows steadfast endurance, though upon it

one of Time's crushing breasts lies firmly planted.

It was no blemish that it was stripped of rugs of

brocade, and divested of its silk curtains.

Lofty, with battlements rising

upon the summits of Radwa and Quds,

clothed in whiteness, so you see

nothing of them but fine cotton robes.

None knows: did humans build it for jinn

to inhabit, or did jinn build it for humans?

Yet to me it bears witness that never

was its builder a weakling among kings.

It is as though I see the places of honor and the people

when I reach the utmost limit of my senses;

and as though the delegations stand sun-exposed and weary,

from standing behind the throng, held back;

and as though the singing-girls within the chambers

sing refrains, some dusky, some dark-lipped;

and as though our meeting were the day before yesterday,

and the imminent parting early yesterday;

and as though whoever wished to follow

might hope to catch them on the fifth morning.

Their dwellings were peopled for joy for an age, then became

places for consolation and solace.

They have a claim on me to aid them with tears,

dedicated to yearning and held in reserve.

Such is my feeling, though the dwelling is not mine

through any ties with it, nor is their race my race,

save for a kindness its people bestowed on mine:

they planted the finest seed from its flourishing bounty.

They strengthened our kingdom and reinforced its might

with champions, fierce beneath their armor,

and helped against the battalions of Aryat

with thrusts to the throats and fierce stabbing.

And henceforth I find myself devoted to the noble,

all of them, of every root and foundation.