1. At al-Aqiq and the standing remains of its dwellings,

    is sorrow that makes the ardent lover weep still more,

  2. and burning grief which, once it grips the ribs, leaves no

    means for a love-enslaved man to desist.

  3. Ruins whose outlines were ravaged until they vanished

    from them, under successive evening clouds with their rain.

  4. They lay all night, and lightning spent the night milking its newly calved camels

    over them, and delivering its heavy, ten-month-pregnant camels.

  5. So the earth, amid luxuriant vegetation, renews

    its robes, and the meadow renews its own with its blossoms.

  6. Time passes, yet I have not satisfied my longing

    for the beauty youth bestows and lends.

  7. A night at Dhat al-Talh—its stretches of darkness

    are sweeter to the yearning lover than its hours before dawn.

  8. And because of your dream-image, the darkness of his night became

    dearer to him than the brightness of his day.

  9. The dream-vision shuns nearness, yet sometimes

    keeps up its visits when its abode is far away.

  10. And indeed I have sworn—my oath invokes al-Safa

    in its rocky heights, and the House in its coverings—

  11. surely al-Khidr, with his judgment amid tangled calamities,

    is like a sword with its edge amid the fury of battle.

  12. If a calamity of time unsettles you,

    summon the age's Rabi'ah to face it, the son of its Nizar.

  13. Whom can we look to for deeds like his,

    or whom can we deem worthy to plunge into his depths?

  14. The man who hopes in him is himself looked to, and wealth is renewed

    through what he gives, and refuge is sought with his protégé.

  15. Either a rich man, whom he makes wealthier,

    or a needy man, aided against his poverty.

  16. And he is triumphant in glory; his attainments

    in good fortune exceed his desires.

  17. One firm resolve from his judgment is enough for the enemy,

    carried through for him—or one ember from his fire.

  18. Calamities lift to reveal a radiant man, as though

    the firmness of his judgment and his dignity were Radwa—

  19. a lavish giver of bounty to you: if

    the Euphrates flowed beside him, it would seem meager in its bounty.

  20. He lavished his favors on me, and always

    a mark of his beneficence shines upon me.

  21. A sea: when Rabi'ah comes to its flowing waters,

    it fears no harm to its current from their draught.

  22. And when al-Araqim boast against their equals,

    they begin with his eminence and the greatness of his glory.

  23. Avoid him, you who lodge at Barqa'id, for he is

    the lion of the den—you visit him in his thicket.

  24. The sons of Mas'ud ibn Dalham—indeed, they

    have guarded glory's frontiers on every side.

  25. Their envious foe hopes for relief, now that

    the stars of night have vanished among its moons.

  26. I was told that Abu al-Mu'ammar gave them more

    cause for vengeance, the evening he came seeking his own revenge.

  27. They sent Ahmad's corpse after Abd Allah,

    while the battle dust follows them in a raging, stirred-up cloud.

  28. Why is your father's grave in their domain,

    held in pledge, while their father's grave is in his own?

  29. Why have you not rescued his remains, when your numbers

    outnumber the pebbles, and are twice their count?

Sol 6.1