Sol 6.1

  1. I said to the reproacher in love, “Come to your senses.”

    Do not belittle the taste of something you have not tasted.

  2. The soul reaches eagerly for the visitors of sleep,

    yet the soul’s delight lies with the visitors of sleeplessness.

  3. Time’s choicest blessing, when time is serene,

    reunites the company when it has dispersed.

  4. Did the lover’s debtor discharge his debt

    on the promised night, or did a phantom visit?

  5. Meeting brings no pleasure unless

    the one who stirs longing is sweet to embrace.

  6. If she granted her favors, her giving would contain

    sustenance for the one who stays and provisions for the one who departs.

  7. She gazed, able to send

    every heart away with a clinging passion for her.

  8. He spoke falsely and showed feeble judgment who

    did not say that deaths dwell in the pupils of the eyes.

  9. If you count as lost one who has lain

    in death, then count as lost one who has loved.

  10. The tale-bearer fills my heart with terror,

    and the fabricated tale troubles me.

  11. For love of her—or, or for fear of her abandonment;

    and outright abasement is love or fear.

  12. I leave the companion be, without reproaching him,

    lest he be called disloyal and become disloyal.

  13. I find poverty more fitting for a young man

    than wealth that lures him; he said, “Burned up.”

  14. There is nothing in him but what incites others against him;

    whenever I said, “Roasted,” he said, “Burned up.”

  15. Most solicitude is expected to help

    once you cast aside the anxious friend.

  16. May the donkey’s foal perish! How paltry is what

    he possesses of charm or tact,

  17. and his brotherhood: if it were offered for

    sale in the Tuesday market, it would find no buyer.

  18. It is as though al-Fasl does whatever he does

    of foulness for a wager or a race.

  19. He claims that sodomy is a settled matter,

    and the fellow is more foolish than the wearer of rings.

  20. Among his ever-increasing faults is

    one stage he mounts after another.

  21. His ugly face would have been enough for us, but

    the accursed one added an ugly character for us.

  22. A standard-bearer of falsehood: if he spoke to us

    the declaration of faith, we would not think him truthful.

  23. Bulk in his body is paired with

    ancestral honor starved by baseness until it grew thin.

  24. A fledgling of unknown birds, all of which

    have grazed in the pasture of blame and fed him by beak.

  25. A pedigree among the Qufs, or in their taverns,

    borrowing a patch from every wineskin.

  26. And when a branch differs from its root,

    it is a worn-out waterskin with no matching cover.

  27. Sunk in the earth, he is not raised by

    any trait, whether coarse in it or delicate.

  28. Turning away from good things, his usefulness has fled,

    and passed away just as twilight faded.

  29. His hands were shut against what

    is sought, like the shutting of a door slammed closed.

  30. If we sought a drop of moisture from his saliva,

    it would be found deeper than the well of al-ʿUmaq.

  31. We found no trait to praise

    in him except giving directions along the roads.

  32. Do not marvel when you see his signet ring,

    and on it: “The donkey’s foal trusts in God.”

  33. If we whistled, he would gulp water; and if

    he passed by she-asses, he would bray.

  34. If he walked, he would amble; if he called to

    a companion, he would bray ten times; if he died, he would perish like a beast.

  35. Solidly built, broad-ribbed; jutting out are

    his forehead, his head, and his neck.

  36. Neither is the ass’s shank marked, nor the

    tail-root crushed, nor the face worn.

  37. And sound: his dealer has never stood up

    and disclaimed liability for night blindness or leg weakness.

  38. Blue-eyed—and among his marvels

    is that blue should be seen in the eyes of asses.

  39. You saddle a wall, or fit it with a pack-saddle:

    sluggishness born of dullness, unless he is driven.

  40. And when he travels by night for a lewd deed,

    he takes a high-stepping gait or goes at a long-striding pace.

  41. Do not pursue any lost good from him.

    The pledge has dashed hope; leave it, since it is forfeit.

  42. Suppose he was a hired man, and there expired

    his month; or he was a slave and ran away.

  43. If we reckoned what he owed and what was owed him,

    we would lose faith, since we were denied and he was provided for.

  44. The world misjudges ranks: up in the

    air is one who was not in the depths of the tunnel.

  45. One dead of thirst could have been revived

    by the surplus of what killed another by drowning.

  46. Mine would be the triumph, if poverty or wealth

    could be maintained through wit or folly.

  47. Gifts prevailed over the Mukhalladis,

    like the sea’s full waters, surging through the night.

  48. If we did full justice to what we have in Ṣāʿid,

    we would rise high into the horizon.

  49. His worth stands higher than his fortune.

    Let fortune not awe you: it was not gained by right.

  50. It brings the promised time forward, or precedes it—

    a bounty that would outstrip a sword if it raced it.

  51. Generosity swayed his two sides as he donned

    lush, gleaming leaves of praise.

  52. I am not pleased by a sway performed by

    a branch unless its leaves are fresh.

  53. Resolute, he gathers through his governance

    the realm’s scattered parts when they fly to pieces.

  54. For kings of Madhhij upon the heights,

    set far away from the common folk.

  55. Glory made their guests’ fare abundant,

    and bounty’s milkings make its milk-yields plentiful.

  56. One of them is reckoned a company,

    a great host; gold is worth many pieces of silver.

  57. He follows the path with the farthest goal

    in lofty affairs and the hardest deeds.

  58. He takes on, in front of the faint-hearted,

    the onrush of banners, slanting as they flutter.

  59. He loves recklessness only in battle;

    indeed, surrendering one’s life to death is recklessness.

  60. He wields the Indian sword, its edges red,

    there, and the Khatt-made spear, its pennons yellow.

  61. The enemies are confined within his power by

    a victory that would catch a star if it pursued it.

  62. Slaves are freed through his bounty,

    among them, forever; and a free man [word unclear] is enslaved.

  63. Though wronged, he is looked to for pardon, and does not

    yield his nobility in that to wrath.

  64. Following every strait with an opening,

    holding every soul by its last breath.

Sol 6.1