Sol 6

  1. He fletched the arrow of blame when he fletched it.

    Then he lodged it in my heart, which did not evade it.

  2. For he saw restraint attack my strenuous youthful yearning,

    While I rejoiced in it as it attacked.

  3. And he saw that I had drawn back, shrinking away,

    After I had once craned forward in delight.

  4. After that life, I put on another life,

    A life one would gladly live.

  5. O you who blame me, how often a bright beginning

    Has ended in darkness.

  6. I am the one who refuses to let beauties ensnare his mind;

    A discerning man refuses such ensnarement.

  7. Not every woman named Hind is Hind, nor is eve

    ry beauty named Raqash truly Raqash.

  8. Just as no lords are like my lor

    ds; let anyone say whatever he wishes.

  9. They enrich whoever comes to them seeking riches,

    And their petitioner is seen richly provided for.

  10. They lift the one who sees his mount become a bi

    er, if he passes them by while seeking rescue.

  11. They give food, dreading that their

    Overnight guests should sleep like wild creatures.

  12. If I seek from them honor in this wor

    ld and in faith, I find what I sought.

  13. They were settled in the broadest place in Quraysh for pri

    de, since they spread shelter wide for Quraysh.

  14. When they struck at the firm mountains of poly

    theism, sending them flying or reeling.

  15. Whenever a serpent of error hissed,

    They crushed that hissing serpent's head.

  16. They crushed every bristling one whom

    The ignorance of the Age of Ignorance had filled with arrogance.

  17. My gray hair and cheek whiskers, asked about,

    Have traded their darkness for mottled whiteness.

  18. I did not blacken the face of old age, nor did I apply

    Shears and tweezers to it.

  19. Rather, I found gray hair the best resc

    uer of one who seeks release from error.

  20. It increased my insight in my love for you,

    And revived me whenever I sought renewal.

  21. I have not feigned blindness since I learned, nor have I ste

    pped blindly through knowledge like one pretending not to see.

  22. My brothers, why should we tire of companions

    Along with one who has tired, or will tire, of embracing them?

  23. My bedding is no part of me, nor I of it;

    Sleep has kept far from my side because of Husayn.

  24. Whenever drowsiness brushes my eyelid,

    My eyelid finds no yielding to it.

  25. And whenever I weep, huddled up,

    My weeping draws in tighter than I do.

  26. The heart of Iraq won the comfort of his presence,

    While the heart of Yathrib lamented its desolation.

  27. Those dwelling places exchanged their peo

    ple for wild creatures that deepen their loneliness.

  28. Empty, with wind walking over their bare ground

    And tawny gazelles roaming through them.

  29. If ostriches driving their chicks have left them,

    Wild asses driving their foals have not.

  30. They grew thirsty after stars from Ahmad's off

    spring, whose light dispelled the dark.

  31. The seal of the messengers, who granted the plumage of

    Grace to one who asked him for it.

  32. Master of the Pool, assuring water on a da

    y when those who reach water still thirst.

  33. He pierced the world with the light of ju

    stice after it had dimmed and faded.

  34. He said to one who wanted requital,

    'Take from me whatever you wish, Ukasha.'

  35. He secured piety without a fastening,

    Then gave that fastening to his successor.

  36. He pressed into the torn breach with swo

    rd and spear, facing the Abyssinians.

  37. His arrow did not miss at Badr or Uhu

    d, nor was it deflected at Hunayn.

  38. Rather, at Hunayn he destroyed the lions:

    A lion who leaves other lions scattered.

  39. That day swords exulted in him as they struck,

    And spears boasted of him as they pierced.

  40. The allied troops seemed like locusts,

    And the Jews seemed like moths.

  41. He stoked the fires of their war, baring a swo

    rd to feed the fires of their burning.

  42. Whoever would topple his throne, he topples with a well tempered swo

    rd that brings down thrones and seats of power.

  43. He plunged into the dense army with blows

    That scattered that dense army far and wide.

  44. He dealt the spraying stroke as he wor

    ked among them, and the spraying thrust.

  45. When those chests first showed a tight formation,

    Then showed their bellies burst open.

  46. When men clashed in their opin

    ions, he surpassed all the disputants.

  47. Through him darkness folded away swiftly,

    And through him daylight spread swiftly.

  48. He crossed barren, stony wastes, coming to their watering place

    Thirsty, to drink even its brackish water.

  49. He cared nothing for the wild heat of noon when he fa

    ced the scorching face of the midday sun.

  50. O sons of Ahmad, love of you has ming

    led with the marrow of our bones.

  51. May showers of rain enrich a grave at Karbala

    For as long as clouds can send down rain.

  52. May spring muster armies there,

    As its own armies gather in spring.

  53. The hands of its life giving rain embroidered its meadow;

    Rain alone suffices as the meadow's embroiderer.

  54. There lies one pure of heart from indecen

    cy, however much the obscene seek obscenity.

  55. Neither a bribe taker nor one who compromises in reli

    gion when the suspect man bargains; far be it from him.

  56. A downpour of piety, thunderous as rain clouds,

    When other pious people were mere drizzle.

  57. Whenever I remember Husayn at al-Taff,

    My breast surges with the memory, surges again.

  58. When the rabble of Yazid gave their horses free rein,

    May they perish, those rabble.

  59. Hoping to be called loyal advisers

    To Yazid, they were instead called cheats.

  60. And hoping to astonish the valiant, no

    ble man who did not fear astonishment.

  61. They found him the firmest of men in battle

    When met, and the stoutest of heart.

  62. Resourceful and seasoned, he fought whoever fou

    ght him, neither afraid nor rash.

  63. Rising over the heads of their champions with stro

    kes that left those champions like ewes.

  64. Defending the last spark of life until

    He left no spark of life in theirs.

  65. From the charge of Ali's son against them,

    You would have thought Ali himself lived again.

  66. They kept him from the Euphrates; but for

    The prior decree, they could not have withstood his attack.

  67. So he turned his reins while thirs

    ty, though his spears were not thirsty for them.

  68. Women bade him a hurried farewell,

    A brief farewell that could not satisfy them.

  69. Whenever he sought to bid the women goodbye,

    They pressed upon him, blocking the farewell.

  70. They left the Prophet's son lying on the bed

    Of the desert sands. How terrible a resting place!

  71. They struck from him a place where even a scratch

    Would have hurt his grandfather.

  72. The slain at al-Taff taught me to break into sobs,

    Though I had not known how to sob.

  73. And grief tied to my heartstrings resembled, in

    Its gnawing at my heart, a biting serpent.

  74. When they said, 'The grandson of Ahmad is gone,'

    I said, 'Never! The grandson of Ahmad—never!'

  75. He fell not through their force, but away from

    The force of a Day whose blows never cease.

  76. The turns of time invade tents

    In tyranny and assault nests.

  77. They prepare all people as dry grass and ne

    ver stop gathering up that grass.

  78. How many hooks death has that ne

    ver cease drawing souls out.

  79. We are among them when it bristles, grim

    Of face, frightening us with its swelling rage.

  80. If a loving friend defended a turn for a friend,

    O companions of love, free from deceit,

  81. Abu Arar would have defended Arar,

    And Abu Khirash would have defended Khirash.

  82. Surely Husayn was more deserving of be

    ing treated with sincere counsel; why was he met with deceit?

  83. Oh, those attackers! None among them drew ba

    ck, nor was there one who held off.

  84. The accursed Iblis drove them mad,

    And they stayed close to him however wildly he raged.

  85. He made their heads so light that they resembled

    Poppies in their lightness.

  86. The stir of heavy cares robbed me of sleep,

    Cares that surpassed mountains in their rising.

  87. How did Shimr's fingers fail to tremble,

    Refusing to obey the impulse to shake?

  88. How did his two hands not quiver in fear,

    So that Husayn might be spared their shaking?

  89. When will the illnesses of the sons

    Of guidance grow grave, or even near that point?

  90. That will be when the blaze of Hell slakes its rage

    By sucking and gnawing the marrow of their bones.

  91. O riders of the foulest thing that can be ri

    dden by one who is vile and prying,

  92. You merely drove Yazid toward the Fi

    re, as he drove you toward it, and far be it otherwise.

  93. You wanted him to be a long pole

    With which to sweep up the world; a mere pole he proved.

  94. Like potbellied beasts that see gain

    Only in filling their bellies.

  95. In utter stupidity you surpassed Bar

    kash, Bak Bak, and Khurkhash.

  96. If you were birds, you bat

    hearted men, you would be bats.

  97. O breasts that were graves of buried dust,

    Which found someone to dig it up!

  98. Those grudges of Badr were unearthed

    After they had lacked the strength to emerge.

  99. In Yazid, my masters, lies a puzzle that pro

    bes my thought, which never stops probing.

  100. The couches of your rule bore from him one too mean

    Even to be called your servant who spreads the bedding.

  101. Only because the asses of ignorance surrounded him

    And drove him into their herd.

  102. O you who oppose me for loving those

    From whose love I will never turn away,

  103. If the dog longs for a brawl, faith has li

    ons that make dogs forget their fighting.

  104. The marrow of the world is no longer as runny as it was,

    Nor is its bone as feeble as before.

  105. Through the sons of Hashim we were safe from trembling

    At what once made the fearful tremble.

  106. Take this poem: it seeks neither Khakh nor Sha

    sh, yet passes through Khakh and Shash.

  107. A vessel filled with varieties of small trea

    sures—how sweet its contents are!

  108. Al-Sanawbari's sea surged with its mean

    ings, and his sea has always surged.

  109. It has pleasing verse that flows on,

    And whenever it grows, I make it flow still more.

  110. Its entry into the heart conveys more quickly

    Than its entry into listeners' ears.

  111. It asks the rains, whenever their clouds sprinkle,

    To keep the sprinkling coming.

  112. A loyal listener faints when he hea

    rs it; a hypocrite pretends to faint.

Sol 6