1. It flashed as a little gleam from Yemen appeared,

    flickering faintly like a yearning heart.

  2. As though, stretching across, it were staining

    the rain-cloud's hem with saffron.

  3. It flashed like a sword drawn by a hand

    to cut the artery of the low-hanging clouds.

  4. Its teats streamed just above the earth,

    and pouring clouds quenched the foster-mothers' thirst.

  5. Who will help a grieving man who, but for hopes, would not

    reach evening safe from death by sorrow?

  6. He interlaces his ten fingers over ribs

    that stirred a fire kindled in his heart.

  7. As though inside his breast there were a bird,

    or a ball upon a polo field.

  8. If you doubt it, the pallor that

    you see rising over him is smoke.

  9. Memory stirs him, and he weeps for

    the fragrance of Najd's hills and that bygone time.

  10. His eyelids drew upon his heart's blood,

    which supplied them with a deep crimson draught.

  11. Burning with thirst, he has pressed his innards

    in yearning and longing against the earth of those abodes.

  12. May rain bless the dunes of the preserve and the oryxes,

    swaying bān-tree boughs among the dunes.

  13. Youth works upon their supple forms

    as the east wind works upon bamboo stems.

  14. Each dark-eyed beauty, like the forenoon sun,

    shames the maidens of Paradise with her glances.

  15. Heavy of hip and slender of belly,

    her waist is slender and taut as a plaited rein.

  16. A maiden so supple she could be tied in a knot,

    yet a tyrant with no gentleness at all.

  17. How many an armored knight in battle

    has that chaste maiden struck from his horse's back!

  18. And many a night I forbade myself sleep,

    until the Eagle and the Two Calves pitied me.

  19. The visitors turned away from me, having

    despaired of me, and the two reprovers wept.

  20. I spent the night, sorrow's confidant, in its shadow,

    distraught, while night laid its camel-neck down.

  21. Until dawn stretched itself, having

    extended its spearpoint toward darkness's breast.

  22. It seemed, as it cleft the darkness, a stream

    through a garden whose blossoms were chrysanthemums.

  23. The east wind passed with the breaths of lavender,

    trailing its skirts over the ṣaymarān herb.

  24. With dew-drenched fringes, it offered us

    a waft of aloeswood smoke just before dawn.

  25. It says to the narcissus: 'No sleep in

    a garden where eyes keep gazing.'

  26. The basil shook off its dew,

    its two sides scattering necklaces of pearls.

  27. The rain made the rose rosy, so it clothed itself

    in the blush upon beautiful women's cheeks.

  28. And the gray doves sang upon their great trees—

    oh, how lovely the trees and those songs!

  29. Their melodies are not understood,

    yet they have no need of an interpreter.

  30. So drink the rapture of companionship in a garden

    sweet of breeze, not the heady wine of wine-jars.

  31. Nuʿmān's anemones have torn open, along

    those borders, robes of crimson.

  32. And she lifted the veil from her face—the

    sun, saying: 'Now the season is fair.'

  33. She untied the bonds of cold from us, having

    settled at the highest station of good fortune.

  34. How lovely she is, a springtime sun,

    far from the harmful influences of conjunction!

  35. For lofty Aries bears her,

    saying: 'How pleasant is this season!'

  36. Her gentle influences steal through the limbs

    like wine clarified in flasks.

  37. A sun by which, with God's leave, the

    world lives—plants, human beings, and jinn.

  38. As though, in rising, she had brought forth

    the face of Baha al-Din in his ṭaylasān cloak.

  39. The face of a youth who lowers his gaze in modesty, yet from

    awe of him the crags of mountain peaks crumble.

  40. Steadfast when rashness reaches minds,

    his forbearance reveals how light Mount Aban is.

  41. His father is more learned than every scholar;

    his fingers more generous than every generous man's.

  42. Through him God brought his father to life, for he

    has borne the burdens of high rank without flagging.

  43. He has continued to follow his guidance,

    upholding his words and their meanings.

  44. Refined of character, through him

    his companion needs no drink of the daughter of wine-jars.

  45. In his palm is a gleaming blade, keen of edge;

    when it moves, it lowers its head like a serpent.

  46. Its saliva is an antidote for one stung by the viper

    of ignorance, flowing with hopes and safety.

  47. Give my words a hearing, O Abu

    Muhammad al-Hafiz, O son of noble stock.

  48. And hear graceful verse whose beauty

    is like necklaces upon beautiful women's throats.

  49. O son of him—the two easts would have darkened

    at his death, but for you, and the two wests too.

  50. You are he who has always been, in his discipline,

    the highest of God's creatures in rank and standing.

  51. May God have mercy on him: how many he restrained

    who defied the faith, and how many captives he freed!

  52. If he has entered the courtyard of death,

    his fame after him is undying.

  53. How renowned he is for publishing his history—the

    work laden with excellence and the magic of eloquence!

  54. He pastured the herds of hearing in his narration

    among meadows whose plants are saffron.

  55. Hearing it is sweeter to the mind than

    the oud's third strings and the plucking of its second strings.

  56. We never see its reader setting in motion

    the fluttering edges of his tongue's tips,

  57. without invoking protection for him—marveling at what

    he unfolds from its folds—with the oft-repeated verses.

  58. Damascus is enviably blessed with this history,

    envied by everyone far and near.

  59. When his history is mentioned, the History of Baghdad

    is like a drop in the main body of the Nahrawan.

  60. The man who compiled it has no peer,

    and no fox resembles a lion.

  61. The names yielded willingly to him,

    and came to be in it, with resistance gone.

  62. People gather no sweet fruit

    unless the roots of what they gather are good.

  63. This Baha al-Din has come

    after his father, with no second to match him.

  64. He won, praise be to God, despite whoever

    rivaled him, the race's farthest winning-posts.

  65. May his sandal never slip—never! And may

    his foes never leave the pits of humiliation.

  66. May time never reach out with what would grieve him,

    but with what he wishes, extending two hands toward him.

  67. Hold high your lofty, proud nose,

    for you and glory are nurslings of the same milk.

  68. How many a virgin question is yours when obscured are

    the landmarks of learning—and how many a seasoned one!

  69. He thrills to praise as spears quiver,

    with tips bent on the day of spear-fighting.

  70. As though your cheerfulness, with its radiance,

    were issuing from the full moon's bright brow.

  71. Your honor is at peace, yet you have not ceased

    assailing your wealth in a fiercely renewed war.

  72. O you of the white hand and the resolve

    that has grown keener than Indian steel!

  73. Dwell, untouched by blame, in prosperity,

    its abode thronged with delegations of congratulations,

  74. as long as gray doves sing before dawn, and as long as

    cocks crow, heralding the call to prayer.

Sol 6.1