Sol 6.1

  1. The finest thing in all time to drink

    Is aged wine displaying bubbles in the cup,

  2. Like strung pearls floating upon silver,

    Molten, turned to gold by mixing.

  3. For wine like this, the bishop selects from

    The finest vineyards of Saydnaya the grapes.

  4. A boy goes about with it, slender in figure;

    Alas, my liver, at his scorpion-curled temple-lock!

  5. A gazelle of the Turks: whenever he gazes, he shoots

    Arrows from a deadly spot that will never be veiled.

  6. He binds the eyes in the fetters of love, and the

    Hearts, as he sways in his belted robe.

  7. In a spacious, elegant hall, whose roses,

    Like graceful maidens' cheeks, display a flame,

  8. The singer sings there in praise of the best of men

    In our age: Muhammad ibn Kamshaba.

  9. His steed carries him toward the foes,

    On battle's day, a bold, thick-necked lion.

  10. He makes his spearhead lap the foes' blood,

    For the spearhead's pin was a fox.

  11. So his resolve never bent beneath the battle-dust,

    And his sword never glanced off on the day of tumult.

  12. He sways in a full coat of mail and a mail hood;

    In it, he shows us the veiled moon.

  13. He whose maternal uncle among kings is al-Malik al-

    ʿAdil—no mortal has surpassed him in lineage.

  14. Through his generosity and might together, he surpassed

    All kings, in East and West.

  15. Every man's title lends him

    Adornment; but Saʿd al-Din adorned the title.

  16. May he ever dwell in happiness, as long as the

    East sends to the West a star as messenger.

Sol 6.1