Sol 6

  1. A breeze traveled by as the darkness was ready to depart.

    Though ailing, it brings healing.

  2. It poured the wine of its delight over the branches,

    Leaving the boughs swaying.

  3. I had never known the morning breeze before knowing wine,

    Nor had I called the north wind a wine.

  4. It offered the noses, from its fragrant breaths,

    Perfumed bundles containing idhkhir and jalil grasses.

  5. Letters of complaint whose characters were traced by heartache,

    And it greeted a dweller on the bank of the Euphrates.

  6. It renewed remembrance of a time now far away,

    And loosened the eyelids' bonds, leaving them worn thin.

  7. It kindled a fire of longing that had never gone out.

    Oh, what wetness rose from that burning thirst!

  8. We stopped at the dwelling place of al-Malikiyya after

    Its people had parted between those who stayed and those who left.

  9. Traces of bodies among traces of dwellings looked alike;

    Both of us are wasted by the decree of distance.

  10. We ask the outline of the house to answer us,

    Though no way exists for that to happen.

  11. O you who saw us with our mounts kneeling,

    Ruins made to weep for their past by other ruins.

  12. May God preserve my heart: how complete its loyalty is

    When a dwelling lies far away and a beloved departs.

  13. It keeps the old pledges despite separation;

    Enough reproach for a heart is to be called fickle.

  14. My two companions of Salman, by God, help me;

    A friend is one who gives comfort and relief.

  15. And do not bring up parting, for it is

    A subject too heavy to hear this morning.

  16. And do not ask for rain to pour over the protected land;

    From my eyes comes a hoarse, unceasing downpour.

  17. Come, comb the hair of the open desert with fine mounts

    Whose quick trot and steady pace never end.

  18. Young she-camels worn lean by travel, until they seem

    Thoughts roaming through the desert's mind.

  19. Crossing the wastes has trained even their stubbornness,

    So that the difficult one among them has become docile.

  20. My people ignorantly blame me for love,

    But what belongs to one's nature does not disappear.

  21. Ever since youth cast off my amulets,

    I have turned and cast my lots in love.

  22. Whenever a gleam from the frontier called to me,

    I rode toward it through danger, however grave.

  23. I entered his girl's house despite the jealous guards,

    And crossed the lion's den, frightening though it was.

  24. My tread upon time is heavy;

    Time lowers and turns its cheeks beneath it.

  25. I trail the hem of life while life is green,

    And face the spears of a kohl-dark glance.

  26. How many hours I spent speaking face to face at the moment of parting,

    Which made patience look ugly, though it is beautiful.

  27. At farewell I lowered my eyelids,

    While a deep sickness of separation lay in my heart.

  28. How many nights I tore open the collar of darkness

    As its long hems were drawn over me,

  29. Until gray hair appeared in the parting of the dark

    And the river of dawn burst forth and flowed.

  30. And on a day when I called to the wild beasts beneath its midday heat,

    While lions rested in the shade of thorn trees,

  31. Whenever they roared on either side of me, they were answered

    By camel cries and neighs that rivaled their roars,

  32. Until the western horizon received the sun's disk

    As a glutton swallows a thin round loaf.

  33. I had no companions but a spearhead and a sharp sword,

    And resolve that could make hard things easy.

  34. And a broad-faced she-camel that plucks nearness from the tree of night travel,

    A young camel descended from Shadqam and Jadil.

  35. To a woman who reproached generosity I said, 'Stop;

    Be patient: has a miser ever won high honor?'

  36. If a person does not buy praise with what he has acquired,

    Then all the wealth he gathers is little.

  37. I have an ambition beyond every sunrise;

    The eye turns back from it, weary.

  38. My age has worn me like a tempered Indian sword

    Whose ring sounds against the necks of armored men.

  39. It is still found striking amid calamities;

    I bear the nicks made by the blows of time.

  40. Camel drivers sing my verses when they journey by night,

    And laden caravans sing them across east and west.

  41. My soul accepts only pure honor, so I have

    No place in the realm of humiliation for as long as I live.

  42. How could humiliation come near a man

    Who has kin and a tribe from Yemen?

  43. When the Arab people recite their ancient lineage

    And speech about it is repeated back and forth,

  44. The Tubbaʿ kings descended from Yaʿrub, and the qayls,

    Are enough for our pride, vindication, and ancestry.

  45. The foremost of Salman—and Salman belongs to Kinda;

    Kinda is shade, as sheltering as one could wish.

  46. My enemies will learn what fierce lion

    They have stirred, while the fortunes of time turn.

  47. When my horsemen raid their homes in the morning,

    With a troop in every mountain pass and another band behind,

  48. Who will excuse me before a people whose hearts seethe?

    They turn away from my path of justice.

  49. When I say, 'Lower your gaze,' or when I appear, they look down;

    Yet in my absence they speak and act against me.

  50. They are blind to the brightness of my merit and stray from guidance;

    The soul's desire has long been deadly to men.

  51. Whoever envies the radiant sun its light

    And its height in the sky is ignorant.

  52. Abu Qasim, take this poem: it is like

    A polished sword that awes its critics.

  53. Its verses come like the sections of a spear shaft,

    With its lovely rhymes serving as spearheads.

  54. When my rhymes stray from me, drawn elsewhere,

    They find no resting place except with you.

  55. And when clouds of eloquence pour down, full to bursting,

    Their rain falls on none but you.

  56. You are my support, my strength, and my refuge,

    The treasure of my days—and there is much more to say.

  57. You are my sword whenever a grave event arises;

    With it I defend my domain and strike.

  58. Calamities have kept clear of your protection,

    And your good fortunes have become stars that never set.

Sol 6