Sol 5.6

  1. May the clouds never leave your dwelling, but rain their bounty upon it.

    The east wind first drives them, then leads them onward.

  2. A copious downpour renews the artistry of a garden—

    the artistry of a figured robe elaborately patterned by a craftsman.

  3. Whenever a raincloud comes early over it,

    its lustrous pattern is woven, its peerless fabric fashioned.

  4. I have seen it as a haunt for a herd of white gazelles,

    its cheeks inclined toward youthful dalliance—

  5. one gazelle hunting me, another gazelle

    holding coyly aloof, resisting so I cannot hunt him.

  6. My passion for him delights me until his—

    —eyes and graceful neck take my heart captive.

  7. Life in gray old age is threadbare, even if it is—

    —fresh; in youth, it is new.

  8. Would that there stood over the days

    one who, whenever an age had passed, would restore it.

  9. And if immortality could choose among us,

    it would rebuild whatever the nights tear down.

  10. Calamities have aged me, save for remnants

    of youth, of which only a fugitive survives.

  11. Do not search deeply for youth; it is likely,

    if we seek it, to prove hard to find.

  12. O Abu Bakr, whose presence, if the rain’s early—

    —shower is absent, suffices in its stead.

  13. God’s blessings attend him and rest upon him—

    draught after draught, from which his envier never recovers.

  14. Is it fair of you that my spear-shaft should be bent

    by time’s swaying, or its oppressive weight?

  15. Time passes between us, in succession

    its white days and black nights, yielding no benefit.

  16. I see myself seeking through you to secure the mat—

    —ter that I do not see you spending the night to secure.

  17. What praise will you win if you take—

    —pains over my affair? What renown will you gain?

  18. A friend’s deliberate feigning of forgetful—

    —ness may make one forget him; a beloved’s rejection consoles one for his loss.

  19. The true gallant is he whose palms, when calamity mounts,

    shine with giving, while his frame stirs vigorously.

  20. His aid is no paltry scrap, nor is his generosity mere news of the un—

    —seen, nor is his bounty a deferred payment.

  21. Such is Abu al-Saqr, when Bakr’s elders

    and its delegations preceded him toward glory.

  22. An originator of lordship: those who hate him are follow—

    —ers and clients, while spiteful foes are his slaves.

  23. Indeed, he has ruled men of merit and raised

    his stations above those of every lord he rules.

  24. How can you be pleased by his turning aside

    from me, so that neither his gift nor his promise reaches me?

  25. He is the raincloud, pouring freely when the rain it—

    —self delays—its sworn ally and confederate.

  26. Though I sought shelter from his showers and with—

    —drew from his tender growth, I do not seek him.

  27. His copious rain faces the enemy; toward me there is only

    the broken promise of his lightning’s flash and its dying.

  28. His palms have grown still toward me, and never will the sea bene—

    —fit you while its stillness lasts.

  29. No report has traveled of what he granted me, although there has trav—

    —eled among the poetry of every land an ode praising him.

  30. Offer an excuse by which he may draw near the furthest reach

    of his generosity—or perhaps a burden weighs him down.

  31. I do not trouble him by demanding payment, nor do I bur—

    —den him as a petitioner or ask him for more,

  32. for fear that I may see what he does not see

    for me, or that I may desire what he does not desire.

Sol 5.6