Sol 6.1

  1. Stop! Do not blame, O my reproacher, a lovesick man who perished

    in love with a slayer, fearing no retribution.

  2. Leave off reproaching a lover whose heart

    longing has gripped with such tenacity.

  3. He lowered the veil over his secret, until, when

    he beheld him, he wept with longing, and it was exposed.

  4. Sickness has taken from his limbs,

    in his weakness, many times as much as it left him.

  5. People were bewildered by him, and all asked:

    “Are you a king over us, or an angel?”

  6. His glances have come to resemble the sword of Salah al-

    Din in slaying the prince of al-Karak.

  7. My heart, when my glance guided it onto

    the paths of passion, turned against it to demand redress.

  8. And said: “Taste sleeplessness and weeping!

    You are the one who cast me into this snare.”

  9. Who will aid a sufferer whose body, on thorny tragacanth,

    lies, though his bedding be of fennec fur?

  10. Unless King al-Zafir shelters him from

    the magic of Babylonian eyes, he will be ensnared.

  11. Muzaffar al-Din, hear the plea of one upon whom

    Time has cast its breast and knelt.

  12. And bitten him with its mightier toothless gums, and cast

    its breast upon him unjustly, grinding him down.

  13. He has hoped for rescue from a king

    who enriches when he gives, and annihilates when he slays.

  14. If into the sea there fell, from his wrath,

    a spark, it would become a frying pan for fish.

  15. If he shot his arrows from his bow

    at heaven’s Bucket, it would become Death’s net.

  16. And if the celestial Lion met him in single combat,

    it would fall on its forehead, its jaw dislocated.

  17. Simak the Spearbearer fears his spear-thrust,

    and is a captive of trembling, never set free.

  18. The mountains tremble at his charge,

    and the earth shudders, fearing it will be crushed.

  19. His ambition presses beneath its foot

    the ravaged cluster of the Pleiades on the horizon.

  20. His sword is a thunderbolt in his hand;

    neither full-length mail nor armor has escaped it.

  21. His thrusts open in his adversaries

    a river where Death’s camel-herds trot.

  22. He digs with a blow of his mace

    a grave for his opponent on the field of battle.

  23. It is as if a hundredweight in his palm were

    a die in a player’s hand: “Two sixes! One!”

  24. With brow ablaze like the sun, he banishes

    with his light the splendid night, steeped in darkness.

  25. He has ambitions filling his heart,

    even the least of which the heart of the heavens cannot contain.

  26. He raised the heaven of kingship until it rose

    above the two Simaks in brilliance and height.

  27. He distributed wealth in gifts, so

    a thicket of kingship gathered around him and intertwined.

  28. Through his generosity, his wealth is shared,

    but his generosity among mankind is unmatched.

  29. How admirable he is, with youth just dawning!

    His governance is that of a mature man seasoned in experience.

  30. He is well versed in the affairs of kingship, ever

    rising to shoulder them—truly, certainly, beyond doubt.

  31. The edge of his resolve dispels anxieties,

    cutting keenly when one affair tangles with another.

  32. Victory and conquest are companions to his army

    against its enemies, wherever he heads and marches.

  33. If he wished, he could hunt the lion with the fox; the

    lion before him is enslaved, held in common.

  34. The peregrines fear the assaults of his doves;

    his doves are the fiercer attackers, and the peregrines the weaker.

  35. Al-Kawthar is deemed scant beside his generosity,

    and beside his spirit’s gentleness, Tuba is thorn-burrs.

  36. Through al-Khidr, life’s gardens turned green and

    grew lush; blessings and pools overflowed.

  37. Make peace with him and be safe; do not fight him, or you will fall.

    For he is a keen sword: whenever brandished, it severs.

  38. How auspicious he is—a victorious king!

    Through him the hump of kingship has grown tall and towered.

  39. At his name, the army is routed beyond

    China, while he rests at ease in Baalbek.

  40. Through the raids launched by petitioners, his wealth

    is plundered, yet his honor remains inviolate.

  41. O house of Ayyub, you are indeed a people

    who, seeking eminence, discard stillness for motion.

  42. In praising you, there flows for every poet

    the milk of speech, rich with meanings and brimming full.

  43. So all praise of others, O sons

    of Ayyub, among kings, is a fabricated lie.

  44. Your names are the finest adornment borne by

    silver or gold, gleaming on the coinage.

  45. May Islam’s pulpits never be empty of

    them, so long as a monotheist calls upon God and worships.

  46. O king who regards the storing-up

    of praise in his time as the finest of camel-herds,

  47. you surpassed the kings of humankind through resolve, and

    the kings of jinn have bowed to you through incantations.

  48. Accept a praise-poem from an eloquent scholar,

    whose words steer clear of feebleness.

  49. His poems declare to his age:

    “Are noble-bred stallions equal to common mares?”

  50. The praise of such a man is not to be discarded,

    nor is seeking our lord to be abandoned.

  51. If he has fallen short in praising him,

    one who strives owes only what lies within his power.

  52. The sun of our day and full moon of our night—

    by his light we swim in every celestial sphere.

  53. Live Noah’s lifespan, possessing through the ages what

    Solomon son of David possessed.

  54. May you rejoice in a year that knots the breasts of

    your enviers with what has lodged in them and rankled.

  55. So all your allies laugh

    with joy in it, while your enemies are laughingstocks.

  56. May you endure for kingship with a permanence—we do not doubt

    that Time’s vicissitudes have not pierced it—

  57. by the Chosen One, the city of knowledge, and

    its gate, and the people of al-Awali and Fadak.

Sol 6.1