1. I shall not forget the dark-hued, sweet-voiced young gazelle,

    so long as a songbird warbles on the bān tree and sings.

  2. I told my heart, 'Be steadfast and patient.'

    It said to me, 'No! How could I? How indeed?'

  3. I have become mad, and my madness increases

    over him manyfold whenever night descends.

  4. My affliction is that he wrongs me; and if

    I come to him complaining, he brings false charges.

  5. Slaughter the wine jar, my boon companion, and give me

    its blood, until drunkenness makes me seem a wine jar.

  6. Pass around the cups of unmixed wine; they

    banish sorrow from us whenever it intrudes.

  7. Wine that turns Quss into Baqil;

    the priest Yuhanna prostrates himself before its radiance.

  8. A moon spent the night unveiling a sun of wine,

    above a branch upon a sand dune, swaying.

  9. Whenever his flanks swayed for us

    in dance, they bore excellence and beauty as fruit.

  10. The pearls of song were gathered by the tips

    of his two feet, and through those songs minds grow rich.

  11. I swear, if we had any power of

    flight from delight in him, we would have flown.

  12. Not one among us is other than enthralled by him;

    the mounts were enraptured when he crooned.

  13. Dark-eyed in his gaze, wondrous in his beauty,

    he is houri-like in his qualities; we are bewildered by him.

  14. Whenever anyone possessing beauty is compared with him,

    that one is a word, while he is the meaning beneath the word.

  15. He is more splendid than the forenoon sun; and if

    its eye gazes at him, it grows stale—he is more radiant.

  16. His beauty is Yusuf-like; he has taken

    the heart's core as his dwelling and prison.

  17. For me to abandon love for the Turk would be

    folly—far be it from me—and loss.

  18. His years have reached seven and seven;

    like the full moon, he rises in radiance and age.

  19. His eyelids are narrow, yet through him have widened

    the paths of passion across my tormented heart.

  20. Narrow is every feature of his made lovely

    by its narrowness: look at his mouth and eyelid.

  21. No weaver can do what he does;

    he locks the arrows fast when their points are honed.

  22. He told me, 'You have no strength to bear me;

    fear my rejection when your purse grows light.'

  23. I said, 'God is there for me, and then Sara-

    sunqur, the prince who enriches and endows.'

  24. A lord—how many enemies he has destroyed! Yet

    no one has found weakness in his judgment.

  25. His fingertips remain—should the

    clouds one day withhold rain—reckoned rain clouds.

  26. Against him in battle there was no fortress

    to shelter us from him; thus we swerved away from him.

  27. He heaps upon his enemies, with the sword and the

    spear on battle's day, blows and thrusts.

  28. The brave men said, 'This is death in its might;

    let no one blame us if we flee from him.'

  29. And if one day he commanded us to offer him

    prostration, we would hear and obey.

  30. Through him religion's pillar stood firm in

    Egypt and al-Sham; how many pillars he fortified!

  31. The birds seek a campaign from him,

    then come to the army from here and there.

  32. Ask Acre and al-Marj about him; he has

    buried the enemies thoroughly in the trench.

  33. It was as though, when he drove the people,

    he drove sacrificial camels to slaughter on the Day of Sacrifice.

  34. His thrusting brought the banners in yellow;

    through it they were sent out darkened amid battle.

  35. He makes for war, both noun and verb,

    while all others are particles, there only for a meaning.

  36. It is little enough for Sarasunqur in the

    realm to be granted provinces and cities.

  37. A knight—had blood not congealed upon

    his sword, he would have sailed ships with it over land.

  38. Asad al-Din—whenever he challenges the

    lions, they retreat on their heels in cowardice.

  39. He never shoots at the enemies without my imagining him

    an angel pelting jinn with shooting stars.

  40. Who will shelter me from a treacherous age

    that has left the eloquent tongue-tied through poverty?

  41. Its heart is hard; it never refrains from

    turning its shield against me, wherever I am.

  42. Its reproach infected generous men, so they became

    stingy in their bounty, betraying expectation.

  43. And Sarasunqur's generosity endures,

    so we turned aside to him when we grew hungry.

  44. My pledges became forfeit with him, so he stepped forth

    for me, a ruthless killer—how deadly a pledge!

  45. The abrogated verses of bounty were made binding

    by Asad al-Din, who exalted and ordained them.

  46. He gives away camels with towering humps,

    and workhorses, mules, and stallions.

  47. One of the foremost Turks, he loves earning

    praise through wealth as Qays loved Lubna.

  48. He is, from the sultan's rank in the

    realm, now two bow-lengths away, and nearer still.

  49. Al-Sham rejoices whenever he settles there,

    and, if he goes far away, suffers abasement and weakness.

  50. Those born of hope never feared him, for

    he floods the people among us with overflowing bounty.

  51. O Sarasunqur, accept this praise-poem;

    its beauty has brought sorrow to those who oppose you.

  52. His smiling welcome spreads ease after hardship,

    and blessing upon blessing from his right hand's bounty.

  53. No one in Damascus fears poverty whom

    Asad al-Din keeps there as his slave.

  54. Its hearers resembled Sufis,

    in their dancing when the beloved sang.

  55. Say to it, 'A warm welcome to the one

    that has crossed so many plains and rugged lands to reach us!'

  56. And rise high, be safe, endure, and prosper forever,

    enjoying far more than you might wish.

Sol 6.1