Sol 6.1

  1. With Time comes an injustice whose persistence never relents,

    and a judgment whose sides admit nothing but crookedness.

  2. I pass the night, my night in Nisibis sleepless,

    because of a care whose torment has beset me in Nisibis.

  3. And indeed, a man's living abroad without an aim

    he pursues is among the wrongs of Time that pursues him.

  4. So he has no excuse when he turns his course

    back to himself because his paths have failed him.

  5. And the hoped-for outcomes are swiftly brought

    to him by undertaking an affair whose consequences are feared.

  6. Nor did I imagine myself, amid calamities numerous as pebbles,

    denied my wealth while its plunderer profited.

  7. For if it were a rival whose rock could be battered,

    or an equal I could fight, I would secure my share.

  8. I hope—but what use is hope when there meet

    the ill omens of a ruinous affair and its deadly perils?

  9. Among the things that weary the soul to its utmost

    is its expecting a favor slow to draw near.

  10. When it meets adversity, its torment lasts long,

    for one awaiting the prosperity it watches for.

  11. No king feared for a poet's earnings

    has gains that find favor with kings.

  12. Perhaps the crown prince, with his power, will secure

    the right of a harried man whose claims bear no fruit.

  13. For he whose bounty traverses the distance from al-Mada'in

    to China, stretching wide, together with his gifts—

  14. has no land but what his spears have won back,

    and no spoils but what his squadrons have brought in.

  15. The lord of the Zanj did not know that he

    was his adversary when heedless living made him insolent.

  16. He remained knee to knee with him before God for a time,

    and each side's supporting forces gathered for the encounter.

  17. And the man felled by doom was a base, accursed wretch,

    whose detractor could say whatever he wished on any day he chose.

  18. He grew far removed from human likeness through a cruelty

    that made one imagine the wild beasts were his kin.

  19. The days did not undermine the lifespan that kept him lingering,

    nor did Time wear away what its wonders had renewed.

  20. I never saw anyone with stronger reserves than the accursed man,

    or more enduring blood, while calamities avoided him.

  21. Whenever I said, 'The bright Mashrafi blades have extinguished

    his last spark of life,' his resurgent forces came back again.

  22. He spreads death, while deaths surround him,

    and death draws near him; death is closing in on him.

  23. Whenever he grew more turbulent, the one charged with fighting him

    was fully able to surpass him whenever he challenged him.

  24. As with night: when darkness deepens to your eye

    in its pitch-black depths, its stars grow brighter.

  25. He shelters in the sea's lagoon; for him, success

    is a day in Time when his spare mounts can move off.

  26. When he withdraws, intent on distance, behind him are urged

    swift war-boats, closing on him with sharpened blades.

  27. When they meet in death's presence, they do not budge—

    our battalions—until his battalions fall.

  28. You see the interwoven spears tearing among them

    the lions' throats, or their 'foxes' being drenched.

  29. If one eye cannot be seen by another, close enough come

    the ears of one summoned to the caller he answers.

  30. The listeners' hearts leap with eagerness

    for news whose mounts are made to halt.

  31. The taste of water where they meet is overpowered

    by draughts of blood, until the drinker spits the water out.

  32. As though death, which the misguided man is served unmixed

    from the sword, were a debt whose payment the hour had made urgent.

  33. When a curse follows the spear with his head mounted

    upon it, you say, 'Yes—and its rider too!'

  34. No limb of his was found except as a target

    for a bright, patterned sword whose strokes are feared.

  35. His gibbeting would have been a cure, had there been assembled

    a body for him with which the man gibbeting him could please the eye.

  36. His head hurried away from him, while behind remained

    his limbs and shoulders, left to their own destination.

  37. Thus he stood displayed above the people, his raiser being ransomed

    with the fathers of those over whom he towered.

  38. He meets his viewers with a downcast, scowling face,

    his displeasure and show of anger delightful to them.

  39. He turns aside upon his height, clenching his jaws,

    as a profligate does, turning from the man who reproves him.

  40. No one remained throughout the world who had cast off the bond

    of religion without crushing calamities befalling him.

  41. The tyrants of the earth submitted to a blow

    that showed the path's guardian what the one who strayed from it had tasted.

  42. At the heights of every mountain pass there had been

    the blaze of sedition, its piercing light calling to error.

  43. Thus the sons of al-Abbas, Muhammad's uncle, returned,

    with people's glory, seen and unseen, gathered among them,

  44. to passing their nights with sovereign power fully armed

    within their precinct, and Death's forelocks black.

  45. So, O defender of Islam, if only there were another defender

    to help him safeguard it and relieve him in turn!

  46. You relieved the Commander of the Faithful, and before that

    relieved his brother of a breach whose mender could not be found.

  47. You have always been summoned against a leader of error

    whose forelock you seize, or a falsely styled king whom you fight.

  48. You twice avenged religion's wrongs, and victory was granted

    to your hands; no enemy you pursued escaped.

  49. A wronged man may be denied vengeance, either through the strength

    of his foes, or because his fugitive escapes across the land.

  50. A kingdom's eastern reaches have been set right by the sword;

    nothing remains but for its western reaches to be set right.

  51. And indeed Abu al-Abbas is one whose judgment is mature,

    and whose days and virtues are renowned.

  52. He shows us you; when he appears, we cannot doubt it is you;

    his lineage and dispositions reproduce you to the letter.

  53. The youthfulness of his years has been honed

    by the mettle of a noble young lord whose talons are sharp.

  54. If a man does not respond to you at once with complete resolve

    through his native wit, his experience will do you no good.

Sol 6.1