1. A gazelle captured my heart on Rama's sands.

    So my heart remains beside the gazelle, never departing.

  2. He is coy and haughty toward one abased

    by passion, who thinks of forgetting, then grows love-mad.

  3. So death comes alike whether he looks or recoils:

    The arrows' impact and their removal are painful.

  4. He makes the clouds' hailstones jealous as he smiles,

    and pearls fall short, even when strung.

  5. In my love for him, I am invisible to an onlooker;

    my body is sick from his languid gaze.

  6. If I tasted the coolness of his saliva, I would be healed of

    my illness, for his saliva is Tasnim.

  7. I have not tasted life's coolness since parting from him;

    so water is poison, and the breeze a scorching wind.

  8. By the life of our lord al-Mu'azzam—it is

    a mighty oath for us, if you only knew.

  9. Indeed, parted from him, I am on a fire of ghada wood—

    not the fire from which Ibrahim was protected.

  10. A king from whom the Arabs take flight in fear,

    and non-Arabs and Romans flee their homelands.

  11. His bright swords shatter skulls, and the

    dark, slender spears crush them.

  12. He is like a mighty lion, routing them,

    and every one of the host is routed.

  13. He folds up the lands with his gray steeds and noble mounts,

    and attains whatever he chooses and desires.

  14. If there were souls in those pilgrimage sites,

    Zamzam and Hatim would surely hasten to him.

  15. A king who scaled the heights of learning in debate,

    so he rose high, and no branch of learning eluded him.

  16. As for grammar, Sibawayh is his companion,

    and Abu Ali al-Farisi his boon companion.

  17. And al-Taj—Taj al-Din Zayd—if brought

    into debate with him, would concede to him.

  18. And in poetry, Abu Nuwas is his servant

    in his serious verse, since his jesting is condemned.

  19. And through his pilgrimage he attained perfection in full,

    so his is good fortune, both new and old.

  20. And in jurisprudence, its masters have lagged behind him,

    for his attainments earn him precedence in it.

  21. And in him, al-Nu'man's school enjoys good fortune,

    through which stars have risen in East and West.

  22. Had fortune favored this servant, he would have traveled in

    the shelter of the caravan—and he is surely generous.

  23. But when he stayed behind, he missed

    bliss from him, and hell engulfed him.

  24. The thirst within his heart was not quenched

    by pilgrimage to the abode; rather, the burning thirst remains.

  25. When far away, I am like the companion of the fish, who

    called upon God while choked with anguish.

  26. Had his Lord's mercy not reached him,

    he would have been cast into the open, exposed and disgraced.

  27. O king who is obeyed, whose troops

    wear marked helmets upon their heads!

  28. How many generous deeds you have spread in Busayta,

    reviving generosity's bones when they had crumbled!

  29. So thorns are roses, pebbles pearls, and that

    water is wine, and thorn trees are grapevines.

  30. I have, since the dwellings lost you—may they never lack you—

    in Damascus a longing that cripples me and holds me fast.

  31. So I face the august gate, kissing

    its thresholds, while tears pour down there.

  32. You are the sun—may it never approach its setting!

    If you are absent from us, the bright day turns pitch-dark.

  33. May King al-Mu'azzam never leave his kingdom,

    ever, and may veneration bow before his eminence.

Sol 6.1