1. In gray hair there is a rebuke for him, if he would heed it,

    and an admonisher in it, were he not stone.

  2. The black of his two temples has turned white, and

    the morning's clear light has reclaimed what the predawn hour overlooked.

  3. A young man has ample respite in love,

    so long as the hair about his head has not died.

  4. She said, "Gray hair and passion—you have wandered between them;

    and the one amid the other is an unforgivable sin."

  5. Ignorantly she taunted me for poverty's repeated bouts,

    though the bow-wood tree stands bare, with no fruit on its branch.

  6. The poor one is not the man you taunted from time to time;

    rather, time itself stands in need of noble men.

  7. That even incapacity can attain fortune consoled me for lacking it,

    and knowing who enjoys prosperity made hardship lighter.

  8. Nothing remains of the greater part of these people

    that imagination can grasp, save these outward forms.

  9. Stinginess and ignorance—a man needs but one

    of those two for every trace behind him to be erased.

  10. If the virtues on which I pride myself

    are my sins, tell me how I can excuse myself.

  11. With poetry I rouse people sunk in drowsiness

    in ignorance; if struck with the sword, they would not feel it.

  12. My task is to hew rhymes from their quarries,

    not, for their sake, to make cattle understand.

  13. I shall surely depart, while my hopes lie cast aside

    in Surr Man Ra'a, with fate deemed slow to fulfill them.

  14. After twenty months—is there no reward to allow

    departure with it, nor any promise to await?

  15. Were it not for Ali ibn Murr, we would still endure

    a wretched lot in life, filled with bitter sap and aloes.

  16. We sought refuge in an awe-inspiring man whose farthest bounty is near

    to petitioners, while his slightest endeavor is a journey.

  17. He persisted in generosity, yet his clouds did no harm,

    though rain sometimes harms through its persistence.

  18. The bounty he lavishes does not weary his resolve;

    how could looking weary the eye of the beholder?

  19. An ample blessing from him appeared among the desert folk,

    abundant; the townsfolk witness another like it.

  20. Gifts for which we never bore the hardship of asking:

    indeed, the rain-cloud is a well beyond disdain.

  21. He is held in awe among us, though no sparks are in his glance

    amid the assembly, nor is his cheek turned in pride.

  22. A coolness to hearts when terror's noonday heat swells,

    and a fire-kindler when war's flame is ablaze.

  23. When he climbs to the heights of thought, there shines before him

    what lies in mysteries that are hidden and veiled.

  24. He has reached life's middle years: neither too young

    for the calamities that befall him, nor too old.

  25. Like a spear, ten cubits long and one more,

    he is diminished by neither length nor shortness.

  26. A man of experience, whose firm resolves have often vexed

    men of wisdom, even when he was naive and untried among them.

  27. Today his judgments are swords of Indian steel,

    and he was already like a sword when his judgments were iron lumps.

  28. He climbs the hills of glory, ascending them

    as though, so tranquil is his heart, he were descending.

  29. He kept outstripping others until his envier said,

    "He has a shortcut to the heights of glory."

  30. Sweet as a butter-filled skin when you reap a kindly temper

    from him, but bitter as aloes if you anger him.

  31. I warned his enviers away from him and told them:

    "A torrent by night spares nothing and leaves nothing.

  32. Desist, or you will desist with regret hidden within,

    when the tiger turns savage in his charge.

  33. Unyielding, when he grapples with foes he wears them down,

    until he returns with victory in his claws.

  34. The fault lies in your entering the bounds of his wrath,

    knowing that he will pardon you once he has the power."

  35. Shunning his bed, he is ever amid a clamorous host;

    the moon itself almost takes its light from that host's glitter.

  36. When Khutamah marches within it, grasping

    Nabhan's bridle, she is both thorn and tree,

  37. you see glory with your own eyes among the sons of Udad,

    while every other tribe's glory is mere hearsay beside theirs.

  38. Be gracious to poetry, Abu Hasan, now that

    its stars have begun to scatter praise upon you.

  39. For rhymes have come to you in the wake of a gift,

    as flowers open after a downpour.

  40. In them are agates and pure gold, if they are worn

    on the day of boasting; in them are brocade and striped fabrics.

  41. A man may take pride in poetry that praises him within

    its folds; but poems themselves take pride in you.

Sol 6.1