Sol 6.1

  1. My morning and evening are spent on concerns other than yours,

    And my path to solace is not your path.

  2. Your eyelids were too grudging to come to my aid,

    And you knew the depth of my passion, yet became my reproacher.

  3. Love wronged me when it stirred my yearning

    For a fickle one, free of passion beneath the ribs.

  4. She unveiled herself as bright spring unveils

    A polished rose that the forenoon makes shimmer.

  5. And she smiled, revealing pearls whose close-set rows hold

    Hail that restores the lovesick one's last spark of life.

  6. The rain-bearing stars have taken your place in your homelands,

    And watered the thirsty dwelling-sites and ruins.

  7. And whenever the cloud's hill-like masses sway,

    It is over a barren dwelling at al-'Aqiq.

  8. Until dwellings are drenched; if their inhabitants were

    Near, I would depart with my burning grief quenched.

  9. Yet I do not wish to be cured of

    My passion, nor to cool my burning thirst.

  10. And I count my recovery from loving you a calamity,

    Though recovery is the love-crazed one's greatest need.

  11. Why do noble virtues seek no one but Abu

    Ya'qub, Ishaq ibn Isma'il?

  12. And to Abu Sahl ibn Naybukht have come

    All their forehead blazes and white leg markings.

  13. A lineage like the successive joints of a straightened spear,

    Supple, giving you greater reach in length.

  14. It leads back to Bib ibn Ju'dharr, who

    Made courage renowned after long obscurity.

  15. Descendants of kings, whose customs are theirs,

    In every bounty, like the swelling of the Nile.

  16. Who inherit the throne's highest seat

    From every lord receiving homage and looked to with hope.

  17. And hold a recognized share

    In the crown with its pinnacles and circlet.

  18. Indeed, al-'Awasim has been protected by a radiant man,

    Resolute as the edge of a polished, gleaming sword.

  19. He gave to the weak from the strong, and restored some of

    The lonely one's spirit and the forsaken one's strength.

  20. The abased grew mighty, seeing you intensify

    A heavy tread upon the mighty one's neck.

  21. And you washed Qinnasrin until

    Its quarters were purified of that bribery.

  22. The subjects grazed a pasture that, through you, held them there,

    And rested in the deep shade of your shelter.

  23. You accorded them the treatment of captives, and increased

    Their bounty as they increased their hopes in you.

  24. And you muzzled the jaw of the sharp-fanged devourer,

    Until you protected the limbs of the prey.

  25. You perfected what you planned by distancing and

    Bringing near, making difficult and making easy.

  26. Without differences in natures, there would not stand

    The edifice of this unknown world.

  27. Speech interpreted by deeds; and only

    Through interpretation is revelation understood.

  28. What can we say, when you have gathered our scattered selves

    And brought us justice and redress?

Sol 6.1