Sol 6.1

  1. I implore the rain to let its morning showers pour

    upon al-Aqiq, though its dwellings lie deserted;

  2. upon a place where I see the days smile, revealing

    its days, and the nights smile, revealing its nights.

  3. A season of pleasure whose recurring joys were never faulted

    even once and so forgotten; nor have its beginnings grown old.

  4. And among those encamped is one with a languid, listless gaze,

    supple in swaying, delicate and frail of waist.

  5. He long postpones the promise made to me, then breaks it

    deliberately, and delays paying my due, then withholds it.

  6. Will the giver of union be rewarded with some of it,

    or will he who requites estrangement be granted redress against it?

  7. And will you restore good sense already undermined

    by youthful infatuation with you, with no hope of repairing it?

  8. Were it not for a heart's attachment—I am tormented by

    its obstinacy, and its persistence wears me down—

  9. your estrangement would not be an evil I dread,

    nor your union a kindness I hope for.

  10. The sons of Thawabah are moons: when they rise,

    the night's darkness is soon dispelled.

  11. Royal scribes: you see governance well ordered

    through the judgment of those among them who choose and execute it.

  12. They follow Abu al-Abbas's guidance along a path

    approved by whoever hears of it, far away or near.

  13. We go in the morning: either we borrow from his virtues

    excellence, or seek gifts from his favors.

  14. He excelled in the race until his envier wearied

    of the long struggle, and his rival left him unchallenged.

  15. Whenever we wish, we find someone who falls short of

    his achievements, but find none who come close to him.

  16. He deemed humility and fairness a noble virtue,

    and baseness lies only between conceit and arrogance.

  17. It is as though his pursuit of praise, out of love

    for it and inclination toward it, were my own pursuit of him.

  18. He is beloved among all people when mention is made of

    his radiant virtues—even among his enemies.

  19. How many an envier of Abu al-Abbas is preoccupied

    with a blessing enjoyed by Abu al-Abbas that grieves him!

  20. He seeks to lower him, yet God raises him,

    and seeks his ruin, yet God builds him up.

  21. And many misers—we have ceased longing for their bounty,

    as a lover forgets when his beloved's estrangement drags on.

  22. A young man's bounty keeps us from them; noble are

    his virtues, and his valley overflows with kindness.

  23. If they withhold from us, generosity comes from his hand;

    or if they lie to us, truth comes from his mouth.

  24. Great in standing, the awe he inspires has never been diminished,

    and renowned in fame, his achievements have never been belittled.

  25. He opposed Khurasan until its untamed steed was subdued,

    through the judgment he chooses and the resolve he carries through.

  26. He gave the scribal craft right direction, by which he straightened

    its path, when its sides had grown crooked.

  27. Fresh in trustworthiness within it through his moral purity,

    and white-robed within it through his caution (if 'robe' is intended).

Sol 6.1