Sol 6

  1. O our night, when she let down thick, dark hair,

    And we lay watching Orion as an earring at her ear.

  2. A cupbearer stayed with us, standing against the darkness

    With a star for a candle, never trimmed and never put out.

  3. Soft voiced and modest, his slender frame was made lighter by grace,

    And tawny wine weighed down his heavy lashed eyelids.

  4. The trembling brought on by wine left him no steady hand,

    And the strain of swaying left him no strength to bend.

  5. Drunk, he was spent by wine, except for his trembling;

    When his waist failed him, his hips bore his weight.

  6. They say: a sandhill with a bamboo stalk above it.

    Do they not know a bamboo stalk from a sandhill?

  7. We made our innermost selves the garments of our wine,

    And darkness cut blankets for us from its own skin.

  8. Desire brought one heart close to another heart,

    And one lip whispered a sip to another lip.

  9. By your life, wake his cup and his eyelids:

    The ewer has already been woken after it dozed.

  10. Darkness has turned away, following its stars,

    And dawn's army has risen and formed ranks against the night.

  11. Stars of the Pleiades turned away as though they were

    Rings showing on the fingertips of a hidden hand.

  12. Aldebaran passed along their tracks,

    Like a man with support, whose horsemen lie concealed behind him.

  13. Sirius the Crossover came forward, bending low,

    With its swift Mirzam beside it, leading it at its flank.

  14. Its sister hastened after it from behind

    To pierce a curtain between the folds of the Milky Way.

  15. She fears the Lion's roar as it comes forward, its nostril flared,

    Growling in the dark as it scatters it utterly.

  16. The two Simaks, standing together

    Over its two manes, seem to guarantee its death.

  17. One, armed with a spear, lowers its point toward him;

    The other, unarmed, bites his fingertips in distress.

  18. The star's watcher seems a falcon on a lookout,

    Turning his gaze beneath the night among his feathers.

  19. The Sons of Naʿsh and Naʿsh seem like mothers with young

    At Wajra, who have lost a fawn in a vast waste.

  20. Canopus, as it rises on its horizon, seems

    A lover parted from a companion who has found no other.

  21. Its faint Suha seems a lover among visitors,

    Appearing at times and disappearing at times.

  22. The upper star of its Pole seems a horseman

    With two planted banners, reluctant to advance.

  23. The foremost feathers of the Vulture, while the Vulture is perched, seem

    Clipped, so that its rear feathers cannot lift it in weakness.

  24. Its brother, wheeling in flight, seems

    To have come below the half moon and snatched half of it away.

  25. The ebony colored stretch of night seems

    To have traveled wrapped in royal woven cloth.

  26. Night's darkness, as it leaned to one side, seemed

    A man felled by wine he had spent the night drinking neat.

  27. The pillar of dawn seems the khagan of an army

    Of Turks, who called to the Negus, and he hid.

  28. The sun's banner seems Jaʿfar's radiant brow;

    At sight of an opponent, its brightness doubled.

  29. The surging deep brought forth bright, cutting swords,

    Brown, supple spears, and ample coats of mail.

  30. Noble horses came galloping, as though

    The pens of their ears were writing pages for him.

  31. There you meet a different Jaʿfar,

    His right hand changed from gentleness to force.

  32. How often you see him in battle, making

    His resolve lightning and his assault a sudden strike.

  33. How often you see him in an assembly, making

    His judgments decisive and his speech precise.

  34. His gifts come as numerous as his soldiers;

    They are no less varied in their kinds, nor less united as one host.

  35. An orator and a poet struggle to tell of his deeds,

    Even if they speak at length and exhaust description.

  36. He is time itself, except that I see no

    Calamity or change from him for anyone but his enemy.

  37. When he attends battle, it extends a hand to him,

    As though it wore a bracelet or band from him.

  38. He strikes with that hand in anger; if he sought a drink from what

    The tips of his spears pour out in blood, he would never be satisfied.

  39. Abundant in generosity and might, his hand returns

    Having fought a thousand and given to a thousand.

  40. In that hand, generosity showers down with dew,

    And on the day of war, death gives off its scent from it.

  41. Kings before Jaʿfar were never set aright;

    They neither rejected wrong nor recognized kindness.

  42. They vied with him, though generosity belongs to its own people;

    They ran dry while he did not, and they claimed purity while he was purer.

  43. When they yielded no spark, he kindled one; when they rushed, he reflected;

    When they withheld, he gave; when they betrayed, he kept faith.

  44. What he keeps is for glory, what he gains for generosity,

    What he shows is for people, and what he conceals is for God.

  45. He outdoes what one expects of rain clouds, though the clouds are full,

    And overwhelms the sea's waves, though the sea has run low.

  46. If I compared him to the sea in its fullness,

    I would fear that such praise would be an insult to him.

  47. Storm clouds cannot equal even his little fingertip;

    How then could anything equal his forearm and hand?

  48. He rules people's lives and possesses their affection;

    Thus should anyone who wins a people's devotion win it.

  49. He is a young man through whom the world trails its pride,

    Lifting its gaze and holding its nose high.

  50. Events humbly ask him for justice,

    Though once untamed, they asked no one before him for justice.

  51. God's sky stood above its pillars,

    And until today had dropped no fragment upon anyone.

  52. It was filled with meteors; when the foes of guidance

    Rebelled around him, it began to hurl them.

  53. So mix the cup of wine with mention of him:

    You will find no blend more delicate or pure.

  54. The Zab became so like Baghdad through him that I saw

    A garden breeze blow there and seem coarse.

  55. The necklaces of beautiful women almost weigh it down

    With luxury, while the air steals its gentleness.

  56. There the father of days wraps me in his wing,

    And the mother of the sun nurses me at her breast.

  57. My mounts settle at no cramped lodging,

    Nor on a rugged pass or a barren, empty plain.

  58. The gilded verses I weave set out,

    And travel on, though dedicated to your glory.

  59. They are among those that go forth as my mount in peace;

    Were there battle, I would place them in the front rank.

  60. Yemeni in origin, Azdi by descent,

    I shape them into verse and set them firmly in order.

  61. I have turned the reins of poetry toward you alone;

    In writing of you, I could not turn them away.

  62. I was no hired praiser, but an eloquent speaker

    Who was answered when he called and aided when he asked.

  63. Abu Ahmad, there were refuges on earth,

    But I sought no support or shelter apart from you.

  64. You are the one upon whom God has made His sun rise;

    It has shone on no one more dutiful or faithful than you.

  65. The sun clothing all things in its rays

    Is, to me, no more ample or encompassing than your generosity.

  66. You took me by the arm while hardships were brought low,

    And made my whole age submit to humiliation.

  67. When you fell ill, one heart was torn apart,

    One ear went deaf, and one eye was blinded.

  68. I had a heart, but it was left an ember

    For your sake; a gentle life turned to burning coals.

  69. I have seen nothing as healing as reunion with loved ones,

    Yet your recovery was more healing to me.

  70. How could I leave joy and anguish behind for you,

    When you withheld neither kinship nor kindness from my people?

  71. Through you I felt safe from days that inspire fear;

    If immortality were in your hands, you would protect me from death.

Sol 6