Sol 5.6

  1. O Abū ʿUmārah, though our dwellings have grown far apart,

    among your lofty virtues is the power to bring them near—

  2. just as the sun’s radiance passes beyond its rising-place,

    and sweet perfume sends fragrance to whoever inhales it.

  3. You are the commander when the sun’s face is veiled,

    and day becomes raven-black night through the horses’ gallop.

  4. For your sake, aged she-camels toil through an ashen, barren waste,

    and through you the spear-shafts drink their fill amid battle’s terror.

  5. Thus death is not feared when annihilating might comes from you,

    nor is a raincloud needed when your two hands are pouring showers.

  6. You press onward into terror; from danger you are not turned back

    by a flourishing life or a full-figured beauty.

  7. You kept close to your grandfather, following his established way;

    thus goodness is a pasture sought, and martial might is feared.

  8. I yearn with longing, though our homeland lies far from us,

    as aged she-camels yearn for their familiar neighbors.

  9. If a thing’s absence could turn the heart away from loving it,

    Jacob would not have suffered from such consuming longing.

  10. Description spares the hopeful the need to see,

    just as the bliss of eternity’s gardens is beloved.

  11. No wonder you hasten to scale the heights of glory,

    when your people are noble, radiant, high-born scions:

  12. a people who, when angered, are a blazing fire,

    yet in forgiveness are mountains with towering peaks.

  13. They bring the lofty, thirsting lances to drink,

    and charge while the lion’s heart is terrified.

  14. A firesteel of glory—its striker illumined the horizon;

    for him, through the glory of God’s Messenger, is a leaping blaze.

  15. His sharp sword storms against the champions of polytheism,

    stained with the blood of chieftains and heroes.

  16. Hungry, though the year is fertile through his noble gifts;

    thirsty, though bounty gushes ever more copiously from his two palms.

  17. Sound is his ready insight when establishing his proof,

    while deliberation ranges upward and downward.

  18. For him the sun was turned back when night was drawing near,

    and the wolf was most eloquent in addressing him.

Sol 5.6