Sol 6.1

  1. Whenever you ask about his fidelity, you will find him

    well able to join the cord you have not joined.

  2. The reproacher bids me bear separation from you patiently,

    yet what he demands of me is the hardest thing to attain.

  3. And the reproachers distress you; I do not obey them,

    nor do I heed the talebearers' talk.

  4. Yet I fear for you and guard against

    the additions of one obsessed with talk, who embroiders it.

  5. The lover's suffering comes from the aftereffects of burning heartache

    that undo a young man's powers of patience and weaken him.

  6. The one who soothes him with a promise does not fulfill it,

    and the one who kills him with love pays no blood money for him.

  7. And a slender-waisted one whose form is drawn from the soul—

    the eye sees in him everything it needs.

  8. My soul never forgot what his hand gave me to drink

    of wine, save through what his mouth gave me to drink.

  9. I see the days' lapse as a gift from one who withholds,

    which reaches you at times, and the forbearance of a fool.

  10. If you trace the lineage of calamities, you find them

    daughters of Time, set in ambush for his sons.

  11. Whenever the world displays an obscure man's eminence,

    expect nothing but an eminent man's obscurity.

  12. None has repelled time's vicissitudes like a refined man

    whose equal time has refused to bring forth.

  13. Abu Ghalib remembers my due through his generosity,

    when the dullard among the misers forgets it.

  14. His hands surpass, even at their utmost exertion,

    the men of means among his equals and his kin.

  15. Whenever we seek aid through him in a calamity,

    we prevail through a face esteemed among the noble.

  16. He modeled himself on a lord of the house of al-Mudabbir,

    who leads his followers to the heights of glory.

  17. And one who follows his enemy's path to glory is not

    like one who follows his father's path to glory.

  18. He subdues a matter's difficulty when he tames it,

    and guards its furthest reaches when he takes charge of it.

  19. Fresh in youth, his greatness lies in his deeds,

    while some men's greatness lies in their years.

  20. His air of composure in the assembly seems,

    when it becomes evident in him, like an air of haughty pride.

  21. When he spends the night giving, with Generosity his ally,

    one imagines he gives with Generosity, his brother.

  22. May he be your ransom from ills—he for whom you spend the night giving freely

    of your wealth, ransoming his wealth and shielding it.

  23. The sweetness of 'no' in his soul is very real,

    and the taste of 'yes' in his mouth is most repugnant.

  24. And many a seeker of equality with you—unceasing were

    your thousands, until they overwhelmed his hundreds.

  25. Had he sought the place of generosity, he would have been content

    with one to tell him where bounty is, and one to show him.

  26. So, more—blessings be yours!—of your bounty, with which

    you have submerged your rival's bounty. More!

Sol 6.1