1. An apparition of ʿAlwa never ceases to visit me;

    it yearns toward me across the distance and makes me yearn.

  2. May God's greeting and peace be bestowed upon

    your apparition, visiting me late at night to greet me.

  3. When you draw near, your estrangement drives me away;

    and when you are far, your union brings me near.

  4. Time has slipped away: no union to make me hope

    for what lies with you, nor despair to console me.

  5. Nor do I marvel that your heart disobeys me

    deliberately, when my own heart disobeys me over you.

  6. Ah, by the roses of cheeks reddened at midmorning,

    and the striking white amid the dark in wide-eyed beauties' eyes,

  7. I have indeed bestowed pure affection on one who withholds it

    from me, and lent it to one who does not repay me.

  8. I give love in abasement, though I remember myself

    before loving you, giving nothing in abasement.

  9. Why does one who does not know me threaten me

    with people, when they have more cause to fear me?

  10. If I fasten a damning satire upon a people,

    let them speak at length to fault and vilify me.

  11. I have disavowed before al-ʿArīḍ thoughts

    that bring ruin, and a tongue whose restraint is not assured.

  12. Nor do I rush into recklessness, making it

    my trade, so long as I find forbearance enough for me.

  13. Indeed, though I am feared for an onslaught

    with which I strike my enemy from time to time,

  14. I possess loyalty stored up for those I love

    within me, and conduct in their absence my brothers can trust.

  15. Will Ibn Ḥamdūn be brought back to the generosity

    I once knew in Ibn Ḥamdūn?

  16. A brother I thanked for a trusted brother's bounty,

    which flourished for me, and for favors without reproach.

  17. Slanderers circled him after I left, and he was changed

    by groups of people, every one directing malice at me.

  18. I have come to exalt him with praise, while he debases me

    with disparagement; I praise him at times, while he satirizes me.

  19. And he has turned, bent on malice, to tearing me down,

    though formerly he built me up with kindness.

  20. You summon the base to insult and belittle me;

    what a wretched gift you give me for my praise of you!

  21. Where is the affection you once granted me?

    Where is the pure devotion you once bestowed on me?

  22. If there was an offense, you are one to pardon; and if

    I committed no offense, why does blame assail me?

  23. Sons of Zurārāʾ, you have not been debased by lineage

    of low rank; ancient lineage is not lowly.

  24. Those non-Arabs: their forebears trace your descent

    to their crests and noses—their foremost nobles.

  25. The dehqans' glory is handed down, while your glory

    long ago made dehqans of the dehqans' fathers.

  26. Indeed, I count you as my clan, and deem you

    more worthy of safeguarding than my honor and my religion.

Sol 6.1