Sol 6.1

  1. Welcome to that approaching apparition,

    whether it has done what we desire, or has not.

  2. A lightning flash crossed Wajra's valley by night, guiding

    by its gleam the necks of straying camels.

  3. From a delicate maiden, withheld and withholding access to herself;

    even if she were given to us, we would not give her away.

  4. Like an unclouded full moon, and a branch not

    bent, and a sand mound not scattered.

  5. Beauty in you, O Su'ad, has not acted kindly

    in what it has done, nor has loveliness behaved graciously.

  6. The lovelorn man was reproached; and among love's ways

    is the obstinacy of reproachers wherever love is not understood.

  7. What would it cost you to wait for a love-stricken man?

    Rather, what harm would a pause at a dwelling do you?

  8. If asked, he falters for an answer and cannot

    make a reply; how, then, would he be if not asked?

  9. Do not strain to shed tears for me, for I have

    tears enough for it, if not to spare.

  10. I have found solace from rejection in separation;

    and bitter fruit is honey beside eating colocynth.

  11. So too Tarafa, when he sensed a blow

    to the head, found severing his wrist a lesser pain.

  12. And a radiant, white-marked one amid a pitch-dark age—

    you have left him on a white-blazed, white-socked steed.

  13. Like a solid-built temple, except that he

    in beauty appears like an image in a temple.

  14. Full-ribbed, his girth's knot is tightened

    on battle day around one of noble paternal and maternal kin.

  15. His maternal uncles are of the Rustams in Persia,

    and his ancestors are of the Tubba's at Mawkal.

  16. He swoops as an eagle swoops when it has seen

    prey, and stands erect as a falcon does.

  17. Alert with two delicate ears, as though

    they were leaves fastened upon him.

  18. He shuns no foulness, even if you brought him to drink

    one day from the character of cross-eyed Hamdawayh.

  19. A tail like a trailing cloak, driving flies away from

    a mane, and a mane like a veil let fall.

  20. Joyful, he shakes a forelock over a blaze

    pure white, its white stockings streaming onto stone-like hooves.

  21. Like a tipsy man going home, most of his walking

    is sideways along the long, far-stretching track.

  22. Gold above, wherever an eye wanders

    over him with its gaze; iron below.

  23. One imagines Orion in his pasterns,

    and the full moon is the blaze of his beaming face.

  24. Sleek of hide, as though they had labored for him—

    a burnisher's files—to give his coat its sheen.

  25. And as though its dye had been shaken over him

    by tawny wine from al-Bardan or Qutrubbul.

  26. He has donned chestnut red, saffron- and safflower-dyed,

    blood-red, so he goes as though in a loose gown.

  27. And you imagine him clothed in tender cheeks,

    which blush whenever your gaze lingers on them.

  28. You see his flame blazing through the dust,

    in hue and gallop, like a fire set alight.

  29. You think youth's first vigor startles him

    with madness, intoxication, or trembling.

  30. His neigh is tuneful, as if within his notes

    were Ma'bad's inflections in the First Heavy rhythm.

  31. He has captured the eyes; if he appears, they give him

    the lover's gaze toward the beloved drawing near.

  32. Muhammad ibn Ali possesses the nobility that

    looks upon Orion only from above.

  33. And generosity: but for its clouds' succession

    among us, the rain-clouds would pass unaccused of stinginess.

  34. And bounty for which Hatim reproaches him

    for extravagance; none is generous who goes unreproached.

  35. Excellence and beneficence; none has reached one goal

    after another like the excellent benefactor.

  36. A night-traveler when petitioners journey by night toward bounty,

    he never performs a kindness unless it is prompt.

  37. High above the envious man's gaze, as though

    the peerless stars had drawn him up with ropes.

  38. Or have you not seen glory set down its saddle

    in the house of Talha, then never move away?

  39. A guest of theirs who entertains guests, and a lodger

    who undertakes for them the kind reception of lodgers.

  40. My life be your ransom, O Muhammad—such a youth,

    kept safe amid the darkness of calamities, which then clears.

  41. I seek Abu Sa'id, while enemies stand

    between me and his beaming cloud.

  42. All Mudar of al-Jazira, and Rabi'a of the

    Khabur threaten me, as do Azd of Mosul.

  43. You have given the swift steed; now supplement it

    for your brother through Udad, your forefather, with a sword.

  44. It reaches the soul, though far beyond reach,

    with ease, and makes an opening in sealed destiny,

  45. with illumination in every dark death,

    and guidance in every uncharted soul.

  46. Keen, though no horseman's hand has driven it—

    a valiant one's—and polished, though never polished.

  47. It enters battle: the shield offers no protection

    from its edge, and armor is no stronghold.

  48. Attentive to death's decree, when it advances

    it never looks back; when it judges, it never swerves.

  49. Blazing, it shears away with the very first stroke

    whatever the stroke reaches, even if it falls on Yadhbul.

  50. When it strikes, every spot is vulnerable;

    when it is struck, it has no vulnerable spot.

  51. And it is as though black ants and red ants

    had crawled with hands and feet along its ridges.

  52. And it is as though its wielder, when using it as a staff

    in terror, uses al-Simak the Unarmed as his staff.

  53. Its ancient baldrics have carried a green shoot

    from the age of 'Ad, still fresh and never withered.

Sol 6.1