رأى البرق مجتازا فبات بلا لب — Albohtry

He saw the lightning passing and spent the night bereft of reason.

And memories of the withholding beloved awakened his longing.

And he had turned aside among her ruins, not restraining

His tears, nor heeding the riders' reproaches.

And I deserved, whenever I recognized a dwelling

Of Sulayma's kin, to be rebuked by my companions.

Distance's hardships kept us from her, and deepened

Our passion for her, since our farewell was tinged with reproach.

I had committed no fault for her to punish me for,

Nor committed an offense for which she might receive redress.

And I have a thirst that water cannot quench,

For a draught of her cool, sweet saliva.

You provisioned yourself with a glimpse of her that she did not grant,

And a well-guarded treasure may be seized by force.

And the eye's pleasure was not my aim in that;

Rather, I saw the eye as a doorway to the heart.

I would spare you the affliction of longing's complaint,

Even if it won us your tenderness toward the lovesick lover.

And it saddens me that you should know love through anguish,

Even if your knowledge of love were to benefit us.

Toward my friends I have insisted on tenderness alone;

My side is gentle toward them, and my drink is clear for them.

And I do keep my friend, even when he turns harshly

Against me, and salve his mangy traits.

Who will tell the miser on my behalf that I

Have brought down my hope in him from an unruly mount,

And that Ibn Dinar turned the face of my ambition

Toward an expansive character and bounty free for the taking?

So I filled my hand with nothing but his affection,

And only of his gifts have I said, 'Enough for me.'

I met the edge of time with him, and he blunted it;

And a keen, Indian-forged sword may notch another keen sword.

A generous man: when the base grow narrow-hearted,

Even the wide expanse is cramped within his spacious breast.

When a hulking fool weighs down the curves of his saddle,

The generous man's steed prances beneath its slender, lean rider.

The people of the East warned one another of his battles,

Before which rebels in the western land submitted.

He indeed bared the sword's blade until they scattered—

Abu Harb's hosts—from the blood-stained sword.

And if the people of the lowlands one day think of returning

To waywardness in their arrogance, he is close at hand.

I swear: the defiant submitted, and into its sheath went

The Roman ruler's galley, so grave was the crisis.

And their fear compelled them to keep the straight path—

Fear of those dust-driving blasts from his stormy crosswinds.

A strategist of war who never spent a night off guard,

Nor did terror's alarm creep through his entrails.

And an urgent longing for his opponent keeps him restless

Amid spear-thrusts, until he finds relief in sword-strokes.

Through him the world shone for us after darkness,

And the days revealed to us a tender disposition.

And Abd Allah has ever been clothed in qualities

That take the place of blossoms amid fresh green grass.

And a young man who strives to rise through humility,

And marvels at the people of arrogance and conceit.

He has forebears from the house of Fayruz who surpassed

The non-Arabs, and the Arab throng submitted to them.

The kingdom's marzbans, through whom were raised

Its mighty pulpits by the titans of war.

They lean down from above the saddle-bows with lances,

And with bright swords you meet them standing in their stirrups.

For them the vaulted hall was built as early as Hurmuz's time,

And the forging of the Khosrowian blades was perfected.

And all the sons of Sasan revolved around them,

As the moving stars revolve around the pole.

They passed on with white palms, surpassing rain

In moisture, and with judgment more ample than the hills.