Sol 6.1

  1. And a knowing woman, yet ignorant of my cure,

    not through ignorance, for she knows my illness.

  2. The lover enthralled by her dies each day

    over missed trysts and meetings.

  3. She has a mouth, a smile, and saliva

    that takes the place of aged, thickened wine.

  4. And an enchanting gaze, coquettish and kohl-darkened,

    and a face whose radiance cannot be denied.

  5. So woe to the man sorrowing for her whenever

    she appears, strutting in her beautiful bearing.

  6. It is as though she has a watchman over my heart,

    made of agonizing rejection and estrangement.

  7. And love's burning pangs are those

    that summoned you to anguish and song.

  8. And a phantom visited me before dawn and fanned

    the heat of my longing and the anguish in my breast.

  9. And in a dream's phantom lies the tormented one's cure,

    and the quenching of those parched with thirst.

  10. But I am the most deeply lovesick of them,

    and suffer the greatest variety of afflictions.

  11. The reproacher tells me, not knowing

    that reproach is among the allies of foul speech:

  12. In earnest, how often do hopes endanger you,

    and ambitions cast you onto bare ground?

  13. You head east without resolve,

    and you head west without counsel.

  14. I said: Time pursues me for vengeance,

    and the days of calamity demand my blood.

  15. And a noble man has no abiding place in a land

    where the cultivated man ranks alongside the inept.

  16. Can a wound be tended without a healer,

    and can a sapling grow tall without water?

  17. I am bound to four things: deserts, a sturdy she-camel,

    a pitch-dark night, and a far-ranging journey.

  18. Were it not for Ahmad and his hands' generosity,

    the seekers of bounty would spend the night hungry.

  19. Abu Bakr—how many a wounded man he has healed,

    and how often he has brought healing to all the sick!

  20. A youth with an everlasting Euphrates in his palm,

    overflowing upon men and women alike.

  21. A youth whose assembly is an honor and a source of pride

    for the lords of glory and exalted rank.

  22. He deemed the winning of praise the noblest gain,

    and earning praise is enough for a man.

  23. He has never made a lying promise,

    nor is he a mere talker whose words lack fulfillment.

  24. He is the loving friend of every friend,

    remaining constant in affection and brotherhood.

  25. He is the sea of which you have been told;

    he is the saving rain from the sky.

  26. He has virtues—the virtues of greatness—

    and the marks of noble character and generosity.

  27. Abu Bakr, you have built an edifice of bounty,

    out of kindness, not of masonry.

  28. May your stars never cease to rise,

    in spite of the envious and the hostile,

  29. so that through it you reach the utmost of every station

    that you envisage attaining in the end.

  30. And how many a handsome man I endured before you,

    ugly in his conduct when asked for bounty!

  31. People with no good character, yet

    they have riches that testify to prosperity.

  32. Their faces turn black whenever

    I visit them to offer praise or seek a gift.

  33. May those among them be your ransom who cannot discern

    or understand how my praise differs from my satire.

  34. So live in safety, and enjoy untroubled delight

    with long life in the dignity of enduring years.

  35. And may your years keep flowing over you

    with blessings perfected without end.

  36. Indeed, my means of approach and my strongest bond

    to you rest on the claim of those who heal.

  37. And you know my forebears; my grandfather

    is the land's jurist amid the throng of notables.

  38. And my uncles have long been counted

    among the great, the men of exalted rank.

  39. And all your generosity is good, but

    the noblest generosity is a gracious beginning.

Sol 6.1