1. Kanud begrudged us her nearness;

    and one who is near but denied you is far away.

  2. By her father, though the breach has grown grievous

    in love for her, and her fresh bond has unraveled,

  3. distance has not matched nearness, nor has

    rejection been recompense for union.

  4. Her way is to renew the dwindling of a pledge;

    and the dwindling of what does not grow is extinction.

  5. And when she is told of my evident distress,

    it matters little to the healthy that I am lovesick.

  6. Will youth return, or does there pass away

    its reign in time, never to return?

  7. I do not see life with white hair at the partings

    as equal to life with black hair at the partings.

  8. And I deem him unlucky in fortune, though granted

    a gain that earns him the name 'fortunate':

  9. one whom eyes pass over, and away from whom turn

    cheeks, glancing toward someone else.

  10. And fair women show a crooked affection

    for the man whose spear-shaft is bent.

  11. The pale camels sought Ahmad ibn Abd al-Aziz,

    saddled, with delegations riding upon them.

  12. If distance takes them far, they are brought nearer

    to him by a swift trot or a brisk stride.

  13. A noble at the heart of Rabi'a ibn Nizar,

    where houses rise high and numbers flourish.

  14. The land's breadth was embraced, and the whole East encompassed

    in ordered ranks by his knotted banner.

  15. An ambition that worked wonders at Busht Zarand,

    whose far-stretched path exhausts the horses.

  16. He braves the midday blaze of Kirman's summer—

    a noble man above whom the banners bend.

  17. He struck the deluding rebellion dead, so that

    those who sat out pitied those who rose in it.

  18. He musters before the royal domain, guarded

    from behind by his sword, which drives foes off.

  19. The Dajjal's clan passed like yesterday; he never slackened

    in drawing his blade: every fire has its extinction.

  20. Absent from those calamities was whoever was spared

    them, while the greatest losers were present.

  21. A day at Rudhan broke their gathered host,

    when one I thought would never perish perished.

  22. Their brass did not hold firm that evening, when it was visited

    by mountains in which iron gleamed.

  23. They swept away the camp of al-Rumum, and no

    pole stood in those tents afterward.

  24. And the spent stragglers of Musa ibn Mahran's successors

    lie motionless before the spectacle of death.

  25. They choked on iron—either swords

    that wounded them grievously, or fetters.

  26. The survivor among them, whose end is delayed, awaits

    what the one swiftly reaped has already begun.

  27. And long since, Abu al-Abbas's counsel was raised high

    by a resolute will and sound judgment.

  28. He stands at the utmost limit of his bounty,

    seeking that yet more be added to it.

  29. Virtues, all of them a burden that wearies

    its bearers with fatigue and weighs them down.

  30. If they were charged with immortality, surely

    immortality would be fitting for even some of them.

  31. How far apart are the ways of these

    people—the blameworthy and the praiseworthy!

  32. All the bounty that melts forth from Fars

    is frozen in Tustar and Jubba.

  33. Arrajan now has miserliness standing before it,

    and generosity stopped short of its two lava-fields.

  34. O Abu Yusuf, one like you, from attaining

    high honors, is held back and slow-witted.

  35. If we had seen the Jews produce something precious,

    we would marvel that the Jews had made you base.

  36. And when you favor your tawny boys,

    you make plain what you want of them.

  37. A practice of affliction in which you have excelled:

    a nobleman may be mastered, then become master.

  38. A scourge has wasted you; from it we count

    a blessing that the envious will not die of.

  39. Tell us, since the stars are on your mind,

    why did the lucky stars forsake your two ascendants?

  40. Venus halted for retrograde motion in the eighth house,

    and the newborn was stripped of his veil.

  41. And whenever you recite your poetry, the recital never fails

    to earn you slurs against both your parents.

  42. And when the rhymes are spoken, down tumble

    rajaz verse and odes from their houses.

  43. He sought fame after it had passed him by, and styled himself

    al-Baridi when the post was dead.

  44. May God kindle in Abu al-Fath's tomb

    a blaze that returns whenever it dies out.

  45. I have never praised a miser, nor do I accept

    the praised man's gift when it is paltry.

Sol 6.1