Sol 6.1

  1. I find love's anguish an ember in my inmost heart,

    flaring like fiercely kindled ghada wood.

  2. And it is estrangement that never ceases to kindle

    the heat of anguish, matching the heat of midday.

  3. Who will defend me against love? Will I be saved

    from it by saying, 'Who will defend me?'

  4. Passion shakes my heart, while

    the guileless gazelle's coquetry consumes my reason.

  5. My censure of fair women and my complaint

    of loving them were a breath from a stricken breast.

  6. I have been made to shoulder the two sons of Shamam

    by trials born of enduring the two sons of Samir.

  7. And we seem prey to the journeys of a day

    radiantly bright, or a pitch-dark night.

  8. And time's calamities linger long,

    although it passes swiftly,

  9. except those checked by Ishaq's munificence

    and the abundant flow of his oft-renewed bounty.

  10. And whenever I lodge in Abu Ya'qub's dwelling,

    my hand reaches farther, and my people grow wealthy.

  11. Do not frighten me with time or what it

    brings of the reversals of these ages.

  12. How can I fear time, when Ibn Nasir

    is my supporter amid its calamities and my defender?

  13. A benefactor, possessing in every circumstance

    generosity beyond all reckoning.

  14. His generosity is a garden whose fruit is my food,

    and his bounty, when I thirst, is my pool.

  15. My chosen one among my friends and kin,

    my companion when I call for help against calamities.

  16. Rich in sound judgment, he stands

    without an equal, with scarcely a peer.

  17. We have not seen al-Husayn discard sound judgment

    since you joined al-Husayn in directing affairs.

  18. And whenever the vizier settles an affair,

    in tying its knot, you are the vizier's vizier.

  19. Through you I was granted what fulfills my longing:

    nearness to Barada while on the Sajur.

  20. And in yearning I gazed toward

    the west, though in the east lay my solace and joy.

  21. And I resolved that my mounts should remain

    climbing between Lebanon and Sanir,

  22. overlooking Damascus, while already

    the whiteness of those palaces came into view there.

  23. So we came to you in gratitude; no one has given you

    your due in praise, whether accomplished or thankful.

  24. And we gloried in a nobility of yours that no

    boaster's tongue can do justice to in praise,

  25. just as I have seen Kinda renew

    its pride in its 'Amr al-Maqsur.

  26. Calamities have wrested the mules from us,

    wounding us with fang and claw.

  27. And keeping mules is a lasting comfort

    for a stay, and provision for the journey.

  28. So grant them freely, for their worth

    is small beside the measure of your praised bounty.

  29. A trifling value; not every prized thing

    a seeker hopes for is of great worth.

  30. And I have found mules tracing their descent,

    before this and after it, to donkeys.

Sol 6.1