1. Convey my greetings to Najd and those in Najd.

    For Najd is home to the creditor of my passion.

  2. Stop and ask about my heart when you come to Sal‘;

    you will find it with the women dwelling in the tents.

  3. With graceful women whose smiles reveal daisies,

    and white pearls and hailstones.

  4. Gazing with eyes that shoot

    arrows—ah, what arrows they are!

  5. Glances work magic upon our

    minds, breathing spells with the effect of wine.

  6. There you find the lions of the den upon their

    chins, laid low by the eyes of gazelles.

  7. They are our beloveds, yet they do to us

    what our enemies do, without restraint.

  8. And a slender youth from among the

    Turks, brought from afar—ah, what a youth!

  9. Beauty wrote upon his cheeks from an inkpad

    of roses, with the finest of pens.

  10. He is sober, yet his gaze is drunkenly wild—why not,

    when the fruit of his mouth holds the choicest wine?

  11. The lightning of his cheek made us yearn, with a smile

    from him revealing hailstones in his mouth.

  12. He unsheathes from his eyelids a sword,

    gazing—how keen a sword it is!

  13. His glance captures minds—has

    Khazraj taught him fencing in the arena?

  14. When he proudly says that he belongs to

    the most exalted, valiant King al-Ashraf.

  15. A king—not even a tenth of a tenth

    of his bounty have generous minds ever fathomed.

  16. Lavish with wealth, guarding honor, intent

    on fortifying the core of Islam.

  17. For suppliants, he has white hands of favor

    that have rent the veil of destitution's darkness.

  18. Exalted be God! For he is the one who has left

    men of understanding powerless to describe him.

  19. No lion ever possessed his courage in

    war; a lion has no cunning.

  20. And lions fear him just as

    grazing livestock have feared lions.

  21. Thus praise befits him, like that once

    spoken to ‘Amr concerning al-Samsam.

  22. His judgment governs verse, for he has

    become the fairest of judges in poetry.

  23. His worth is that of the Night of Decree in every

    season, even without the month of fasting.

  24. His sword overpowers enemies while they are awake,

    and you see it terrifying them in dreams.

  25. God knows that he is the most generous of

    kings in open-handedness, among all peoples.

  26. He breaks up enemy armies in battle,

    wielding power through undoing and binding.

  27. On that day the sons of Shem resemble, through

    the rust of full coats of mail, the sons of Ham.

  28. Through your favors, O King

    al-Ashraf, the hue of every darkness is dispelled.

  29. Indeed, your days that we behold

    are the lords of all other days.

  30. And your right hand has a downpour of generosity,

    whose rainfall shames the downpour of clouds.

  31. And whenever, on any day, you brandish a sword,

    death laughs along the sword's cutting edges.

  32. O bulwark of the feared frontier, with thrusts

    at enemies' mouths and blows to their heads,

  33. and steadfastness that opens to reveal leaps

    firmly rooted in the lion's heart.

  34. Enamored of bold advance, forcing your

    enemies, on the day of battle, to retreat.

  35. So upon the master of mankind, King

    al-Ashraf, be the fullest greeting and peace.

  36. May he endure in kingship and happiness as long as

    al-Suha, al-Simak, and the two sons of Tamam endure.

Sol 6.1