Sol 5.6

  1. Souls are driven toward death, then racked with longing.

    Lovers are burdened with what cannot be borne.

  2. By God, how many separations have drained their last lifeblood—

    desertion that made their blood lawful to shed, and parting.

  3. How swiftly the gazelles—and their eyes—have fled from it!

    They journeyed toward him, while longings poured that lifeblood away.

  4. Forever they choke upon the flood of their tears;

    darkness and daybreak are alike to them.

  5. They race, with no course but the surface of a cheek—

    horses—but their chestnut ones lead the race.

  6. If lightning flashes, or a gray dove breaks into song,

    hearts yearn, and eyes rain down.

  7. Their tenderest parts softened, and passion enslaved them—

    many a free man has been overtaken by bondage.

  8. The fair, lovely women possessed them, and not one of them

    escaped from beneath that harsh dominion.

  9. Among the wonders is their seizing of men's hearts

    by force, though no rightful claim to them can be hoped for.

  10. They were fashioned from Time and all its harshness: no

    tenderness do they grant, nor any pity.

  11. They resemble Time in undoing whatever they bind,

    treacherously—there is neither pledge nor covenant.

  12. He spurns the woman whose anklet has never stirred for a moment,

    though she has a swaying sash and girdle.

  13. Between him and her are heavy veils, and before those

    polished blades, slender along their backs.

  14. A sprig of basil from the garden—except that

    her leaves are brocade woven in Sana'a.

  15. He cares for her—if only she would care for him—

    a captive whom love's grievous torment holds in chains.

  16. She vowed my blood before I had even sought her embrace;

    and a band of hers rushes headlong toward harm.

  17. She did not know that I dwell beneath a caliph's protection,

    in whose right hand lie appointed lifespans and provisions.

  18. In his reign no grievance is voiced over imposition or constraint,

    while his authority over all that death encompasses is absolute.

  19. His noble roots stand firmly planted in generosity,

    and his ancestral branches spread spaciously across the summit.

  20. A king who straightened the crookedness of religion and worldly life,

    so every horizon's dominion inclined toward him.

  21. The horizons yearned for him, though he fills them

    with eminent men whom his aloofness leaves yearning.

  22. These realms and kings submit to his command,

    yielding obediently, just as they are led.

  23. After the Maghrib, Syria shall answer him,

    and Yemen and Iraq shall follow his example.

  24. Who but he can bring the strongholds safely under protection

    and, through what he devises, spring every lock open?

  25. His legions guarantee that they will leave the enemy,

    on battle's day, with their heads split apart.

  26. O House of Ayyub, depart from your Egypt,

    or submit—for he has the power to burn it.

  27. No obstacle can turn him from it: who has ever seen

    the lion of the den barred from his own den?

  28. As for the sons of Jacob, already ruin has fallen upon them

    through the terror of his might and its crushing force.

  29. They lost existence beneath sudden blows and calamities,

    and there they found and tasted the savor of death.

  30. The bondage of kings rides upon his noble steeds;

    through his bounty and favor comes their emancipation.

  31. His felicity has pervaded all existence; only

    rebels and renegades are made wretched by it.

  32. Yahya al-Murtada revived the earth's dead lands,

    until the drowning downpour itself took him as its model.

  33. A full moon of guidance—yet his perfection

    can never be overtaken by the waning moon.

  34. Above the stars his lofty tents were pitched,

    and there they have pavilion and portico.

  35. If at night he bows his face before the All-Merciful,

    then all day long the necks of others bow to him.

  36. With anyone other than him, disagreement must inevitably arise;

    upon him, in truth, all hands meet in allegiance.

  37. For clemency there is a thriving market at his court,

    while his largesse leaves all precious wares unsold.

  38. He overlooks offenses and lowers his gaze; the noble man, by nature,

    is given to forbearance and modest restraint.

  39. There is no prosperity except his favor, nor any wealth apart from it;

    whoever misses it is humiliated by destitution.

  40. May our days remain perpetual feasts through him,

    and may his gifts be necklaces upon our necks.

  41. Among his enemies, the Feast of Breaking Fast is like the Feast of Sacrifice,

    for their dark blood flows and is poured away.

Sol 5.6