Sol 6.1

  1. By our days between al-Majarra and al-Qasr,

    and the sweetness of our nights, white-footed and white-blazed;

  2. and a life like rain-cloud water in clarity and tenderness,

    and sweeter to taste than embracing a maiden;

  3. and true brothers—may I never be deprived of their lives—

    through whom I rose in glory above the eagle's head.

  4. We raced on the horses of youth across a meadow

    of life, while I heeded neither Zayd nor Amr.

  5. I cast off my bridle among them, forsaking modesty;

    I go at dusk and dawn along the path of chaste love.

  6. Choice wine, lutes, aloeswood, and wealth,

    and a slave girl pouring drinks, and a flowing watercourse;

  7. and a beauty who sang, making needless—through her voice

    and her flute—both nightingale and turtledove.

  8. She shows you the morning light in her face and brow,

    and above her you delight in the circle of dawn.

  9. She sways as the east wind sways, so you imagine her

    a bough when the breeze bends our green leaves.

  10. And but for the dune behind her, they would fall apart—

    the parts of her curves and waist—from her coquetry.

  11. And she reaches out like a gazelle, with an eye

    delicate at the corners, languid in its droop.

  12. She offers me potent wine from her sweet saliva,

    gushing from between rubies and pearls.

  13. So never drink wine except from her lips,

    to learn the power of choice vintage and wine.

  14. For whoever tastes a draught from those lips,

    I have decreed that he will never sober up, for all eternity.

  15. I wept for a bygone age, just as she wept—

    al-Khansa, in anguish, grieving for Sakhr.

  16. May God water that sanctuary with pouring rain,

    and may the clouds and rain never cease to pour.

  17. A sanctuary that dispelled our cares, just as

    the age's darkness faded before your face, O pride of humankind.

  18. You came to Dar al-Salam, bringing safety

    and security for its people against injustice and hardship.

  19. You rose there as a sun and a full moon, so it would not

    need the shining sun and the full moon.

  20. You scattered excellence there, whose stars almost

    surpass the moons and the seven radiant planets.

  21. Sciences through which landmarks and hills come alive,

    and glory through which ranks and pride rise.

  22. Displays from the folds of the unseen, which you unfolded;

    so you grew fragrant, O horizon of glory, in that unfolding.

  23. You rose to a lofty station among virtues,

    so he sought through it a rank above the pearl-bright star.

  24. Yours is the highest rank in learning; rejoice,

    and in it tower in stature above everyone of standing.

  25. And what is worldly rank, however great its worth?

    So, you who ask about his state and his words,

  26. you have found one who will tell you, if you do not know.

    He is the sea in learning, eminence, and bounty;

  27. so say of him what you wish, and speak of the sea.

    If you seek to enumerate and encompass his excellence,

  28. then that lies beyond the limits of counting and reckoning.

    I have brought a drop from the seas of his ocean;

  29. so be content with the drop from the sea of his bounty.

Sol 6.1