Sol 5.6

  1. Rise and behold the radiant full moon, unveiled in splendor.

    You will find beauty embodied and portrayed.

  2. Guard your heart whenever you behold, within

    those drowsy eyes, languid with sleep.

  3. Through them Hārūt cast some of his incantations—

    a magic by which hearts are bought and sold.

  4. Tell the gazelle, if you come to the hills of al-Naqā:

    “Contemplate this dark-eyed gazelle.”

  5. A fawn with a gazelle’s eyes and graceful neck,

    yet, like a branch, he has grown fruitful.

  6. The bough of his figure resembles a supple bān-tree wand

    when beauty clothes it in a green mantle.

  7. By my soul, that nectar of his mouth contained

    musk passed around at his sipping lips—and Kawthar.

  8. I drank from it the Water of Life and was revived

    after death; well might I rise again.

  9. From him I won a string of inset pearls

    when I kissed the crimson carnelian of his lips.

  10. I drew him close, and his cheeks bloomed rose-red

    with shyness, though before that they were pearl-white.

  11. And I inhaled a dot of ambergris traced upon

    a cheek whose youthful bloom dazzled all mankind.

  12. How sweet were the days of union—

    if only they could be purchased with a lifetime!

  13. A time when the branch of my youth

    was fairer than the tender bough, and fresher;

  14. days of wedding festivities whose beauty resembled

    a wedding for Ismāʿīl, exalted in rank.

  15. How noble he is—a man of merit aspiring

    to fields of learning, drawing oceans near.

  16. He inherited leadership from his father and grandfather

    and encompassed glory, surpassing and preeminent.

  17. The vizier’s wise and forbearing judgment required—

    when he saw him as a radiant full moon—

  18. that he make the issuing of fatwas a jeweled necklace

    upon his neck, so it might gain a fuller share of honor.

  19. By his judgment he dispelled the darkness of hard questions

    until the night of ignorance became moonlit.

  20. In his resolve he recalled al-Ṣiddīq to us

    when Islam’s bonds had come undone.

  21. With the keen blade of his mind he cleft through affairs—

    keener than the tempered sword, yet more deliberate.

  22. He ran the racecourse of perfection at the fore

    and towered there above predecessors and successors.

  23. Until he took the foremost seat alone, and all

    the people of merit withdrew from him backward.

  24. He comes from noble houses whose lineages shone

    when their forebears lit the fire of hospitality above them.

  25. They climbed the heights to a glory proud and lofty,

    surpassing all in rank and splendid to behold.

  26. I knew their dwellings must belong to Paradise

    when there I drank the pure water of Kawthar:

  27. they who pitch their tents upon generosity

    and freely give away the gleaming yellow gold.

  28. No wonder every noble virtue has been gathered in him:

    all game, as the proverb says, lies in the wild ass’s belly.

  29. The souls of those who seek his bounty knew it,

    so for him they crossed the land and braved the seas.

  30. A lord whose palm, whenever it encloses the reed pen,

    makes it stand in for an army when calamity strikes.

  31. Upon the face of the page he casts forth wisdom

    that solves a problem and repels an evil.

  32. His noble deeds go forth in the evening and the morning,

    like rain returning fresh, time and again.

  33. He meets his guests with a beaming face,

    like a meadow awaiting the rain-laden cloud.

  34. May this wedding gladden him: at its arrival there vanished

    hardship, and in it he found life verdant.

  35. To him was conducted, from the sea of glory, a pearl

    treasured in the bridal chamber—the noblest one may see.

  36. She journeyed by night to him as the morning sun journeys;

    let her journey on, never wearying of the night-road.

  37. Good fortune, prosperity, and an auspicious star of happiness;

    and a feast whose tidings have gladdened the Mother of Cities.

  38. An edifice of honor has indeed been built among mankind:

    a palace, and a pulpit raised for noble deeds.

  39. Glad tidings transmit joy in an unbroken chain—

    no, among us this is no fabricated report.

  40. Rejoice in her, O son of the noble: indeed she

    is pure in origin and breathes forth ambergris.

  41. She appeared like the full moon in her chronogram

    and yearned toward Ismāʿīl—a necklace of jewels.

Sol 5.6