1. She reproached me, though not for shedding tears,

    but because the flood of tears did not endure.

  2. And she felt pain when she saw my pain

    from parting's calamity, which made me forget pain's burning anguish.

  3. She concealed tears that she did not reveal,

    while I revealed tears that I did not conceal.

  4. Through parting, a rift is mended and made whole,

    while folly splits a union that will not heal.

  5. O dwelling of al-Liwa, that left within its heart

    haunts of decay and streaming tears!

  6. What harm to your people, had its judgment restored

    justice in the decree, as it had been unjust in judgment?

  7. How many a ruin of separation and love lies in the heart,

    unworn by the fury of days and age!

  8. O blessing of God, endure among the sons of Jusham,

    through Malik, Jusham's praiseworthy king.

  9. And you, mighty Taghlib, take pride,

    for you have taken your place upon heads and summits.

  10. Prince Malik ibn Tawq is an honor

    with which God has clothed you among Arabs and non-Arabs.

  11. A sword: the imam of guidance never shakes its hilt

    without setting upright those who had not stood.

  12. How many a mighty man has folded his flank upon humiliation,

    whose instep he made slip from its foothold.

  13. Ask the transgressors about him and his battle-days:

    what the consequences of transgression did to them.

  14. When, in ignorance, they rebelled and transgressed, he marshaled against them

    a war that made them choke on cold, icy water.

  15. You left no excuse by offering peace, until their ignorant one thought

    that you had turned to play, and closed your eyes through deafness.

  16. Until, when sheer dissension had disheveled them,

    you set their disheveled locks in order with the sword.

  17. You unsheathed against them a keen, hard-tempered sword

    and a resolve like the edge of a sharp, slicing blade.

  18. The entrances to earth's passes were barred against them,

    until they seemed bewildered behind a barricade.

  19. They spent the night kindling war's fire among themselves,

    and dawn found them between Death's claw and maw.

  20. You cured their sickness when you met them

    with the sickness of a bloody battle that cures sickness.

  21. From the stormcloud of appointed deaths you sent above them

    birds in flocks, not counted among the vultures.

  22. You lowered death's bucket into their souls,

    and submerged it to the rope-bindings and leather straps.

  23. You shattered their shoulder when you descended upon them

    with a shoulder of yours that emerged unbroken.

  24. You left them wounded, or forcibly taken

    captive, or cast down as meat upon a butcher's board.

  25. Captives, wounded, and slain in their dwellings,

    as though they had donned shirts of leather.

  26. You bequeathed them remorse after what they had done,

    if you had left in them any place for remorse.

  27. Your horses remained fasting on the day of terror,

    but your sword did not fast on the day of terror.

  28. The clouds of death poured over their heads

    a downpour of death, its rain and steady showers close upon them.

  29. Battles branded the nose of dissension, though

    dissension had long lived unbranded.

  30. It was as though its nose-bridge had been proudly high,

    then it became nose-cropped, after its length and loftiness.

  31. From your two palms, Abu Kulthum, gushed

    springs of generosity amid hardship and distress.

  32. Tawq built you an enduring house of glory,

    towering in height, pillars, and supports.

  33. Since casting off his amulets, he has always handed down

    the laws of glory from his forefathers of old.

  34. His sword-belts linked him to a king,

    by the bond of one who holds fast to God—Mu'tasim.

  35. His speech finds no rest from words

    except in a 'yes' that smiles, revealing gifts.

  36. A guardian of honor, whose neighbor is unassailable, possessed of generosity,

    pure in nature, fulfilling pledges and covenants.

  37. His neighbor, through the might of his protection, seems

    between the two Simak stars, or in the sanctuary's precinct.

  38. And his supplicant has free access to his favors,

    but is barred from the neediness of poverty.

  39. If time had from him some of his character,

    time among us would become pure in character.

  40. Can the winner of eminence and glory guard their sanctuary

    if he does not defend noble lineage and generosity?

  41. Through his resolve, in every calamity you see

    a full moon shining with moonlight in the darkness.

  42. When resolving on a matter, he almost does what

    the Tablet has not yet made the Pen's nostril bleed forth.

  43. Evening never finds him except with his wealth divided

    like the scattered hands of Saba, and his honor undivided.

  44. He tamed time, and its calamities disciplined him,

    yet he did not submit, nor was he censured or reproached.

  45. Never, since his petitioner first petitioned him, has he met him

    except with a radiant, smiling face.

  46. He left enduring deeds of glory and generosity

    that effaced the deeds of Ka'b and Haram.

Sol 6.1