1. The veil has been cast aside in loving you,

    and hearing has become like seeing.

  2. And from our secret has spread what we never

    thought would be divulged.

  3. We have cast off restraint: no watcher

    is feared, and no reprover obeyed.

  4. Our intimate talk is now face to face,

    and messengers and written notes are no more.

  5. My forgetfulness hastened its farewell—

    how welcome that farewell!

  6. O you to whom I sold a heart

    that, but for love, would never have been sold:

  7. your closeness to me, since you left, is a rarity;

    it is only your desertion that is common.

  8. Whenever a knot grows in you

    of sorrow, a fathom grows in me.

  9. No—by my pursuit of your pleasure, until

    no further pursuit remained, as I see it—

  10. I have seen no gazelle but you

    whose glance the beasts of prey fear.

  11. A gazelle that frightens hearts,

    though a gazelle fears its own shadow.

  12. He has a cheek whose dew is forbidden,

    and an eye filled with deceit.

  13. A delight of beauty for a discerning beholder,

    with no enjoyment beyond a glance.

  14. Look at his face, my brother, and you will behold

    a full moon that rises in the darkness.

  15. If you do not believe, come, make a bargain;

    then see who secures the sale.

  16. And after this, whoever among us wastes

    a day of joy is himself the wasted one.

  17. So rise, and let us deflower her, a bride

    for whose dowry estates are sold.

  18. A fire appearing in a vessel of light,

    she has a radiance even before being diluted.

  19. If drink has made the head ache,

    then with her the headache is cured.

  20. The hills have already strung their ornaments,

    and the fields have unfurled their brocade.

  21. The flowers in the garden are my carpet,

    and the clouds in the sky are my sail.

  22. Look at a scene whose crafting was undertaken

    by a skillful rain cloud.

  23. The plants recline beneath the dew,

    and the dew reclines above them.

  24. Farith delighted us, and sweet were

    its green valleys and hills.

  25. Those dwellings rejoiced,

    and those quarters were made to smile.

  26. And there is its garden, which

    the eye has no power to disobey.

  27. Thirsty hearts drink their fill from it,

    and hungry eyes are sated.

  28. Its birds converse in cries,

    and its trees play at wrestling.

  29. Its waterwheel's sound is music

    for us whenever we miss the music.

  30. O garden, made so spacious that no

    other garden seems spacious beside it!

  31. May the rain never resolve to leave you,

    nor the rain clouds know what resolve to depart is.

  32. Rather, may it lavish watering upon you,

    enough to quench hill and plain:

  33. the generosity of Ali, the youth of lofty deeds;

    for his generosity in giving is innate.

  34. The mighty lord, from whose

    nobility the clashes of battle fall away.

  35. He fights for glory with such swordplay

    that resistance finds itself helpless;

  36. he defends it with a defense

    at which resistance gnashes its teeth.

  37. The renowned lion: indeed, the

    lions are hyenas in his eyes.

  38. Understanding burns in his glance;

    knowledge flashes in his speech.

  39. Mighty in resolve, mighty in judgment,

    he can shoulder all that is laid upon him.

  40. The Hashimite, towering in glory—

    oh, may my father ransom his towering glory!

  41. The rule of generosity prevails in his gifts,

    and its command is obeyed among them.

  42. He has a resolve that never turns back

    short of its goal, nor retreats.

  43. What it abandons is never protected,

    and what it protects is never lost.

  44. May one whose deeds are slow ransom him—

    very slow—while his words are swift.

  45. His dinar in generosity is a mere copper coin,

    and his kurr measure in boasting a mere sa'.

  46. O lord of authentic nobility,

    not nobility whose origin is invention:

  47. may I be envied for Shuja as long as you live,

    and may Shuja live in happiness.

  48. May your two stars rise ever higher,

    as long as the stars can rise.

  49. For you two—may no drawing near befall

    your union, no, nor any gathering—

  50. are like the eye and eyebrow in harmony,

    in closeness, like the upper arm and forearm.

  51. If one heart can be another's milk-brother,

    then your two hearts share a nursing bond.

  52. Ali, every height of honor

    is low beside your honor.

  53. Thus you could obtain from Shuja

    what could never before be obtained.

  54. So he did not [unclear verb]; for you are brave,

    in that he is the deadly, courageous one.

  55. You won from him a nest-bred fledgling

    whose nest the hills sheltered.

  56. If you grant him patronage, by a choice

    of your own, that patronage is not wasted.

  57. If he is clothed in benefit beneath your shade,

    then that benefit has flourished.

  58. Here he is, bending his ear toward you,

    listening to your command.

  59. Clad by you in armor of pride,

    may he rejoice in that armoring.

  60. So with him split the heart of every reprover

    whose heart is cleft by you both.

  61. For you are the mountain of eminence that has

    stood firm, never to be uprooted.

  62. How many a man who aspired to a station

    you attained has been betrayed by his ambition!

  63. No one equals you there, unless

    the head and the shank become equal.

  64. For us to say otherwise would be madness,

    if we said it—or a seizure.

  65. Live unharmed, to invent glory,

    for that is a splendid invention.

  66. Your generosity knows no end,

    and our praise has no end.

Sol 6.1