Sol 6.1

  1. You came early to reproach; one like her reproaches you.

    Stop reproaching, for in this you are unjust.

  2. I resigned myself to forgoing many ambitions,

    and was content with an unharmed soul for my lot.

  3. And I saw circumstances swiftly changing—

    flashes and illusions, like a dreaming woman's dream.

  4. Do not delight in attaining a rank

    for which groups were envied, then went away regretful.

  5. And consider dynasties whose rulers are dispossessed:

    They once spoke face-to-face, then became compliant.

  6. In Umm Musa there is solace for you; so look

    at what Time did to her, and afterward to Fatima.

  7. It brought them both as low as it had raised them—

    that eminence—then struck them both with a crushing blow.

  8. The outcome of prominence is a watchful glance

    from the eye of your age; so leave it asleep.

  9. Do not drink your fill from the cup of its fortunes,

    for I see you afterward hovering about the watering places.

  10. And when a venture's opening charms you with its beauty,

    then ascertain what the ending will be.

  11. Oh, how many hearts, by the fire of their cares,

    are seared and suffer in pampered bodies!

  12. And many a man shaded by coarse cloth, his doom set aflame,

    and many a fettered man resting on a pillow in a pavilion.

  13. They stood out in Time's palm, and it snatched them away.

    Are flowers plucked unless they have sprung up?

  14. The inner flight-feathers remain hidden; it is only

    the wing's foremost feather that Time targets.

  15. We have resolved to begin drinking early,

    but we have no food

  16. except some pleasing, delicate flatbread,

    with heads to match the number of our heads.

  17. That is like water with bubbles, and those heads

    upon it are like sleeping waterfowl.

  18. Ah, their arrival, when first they come

    from a fiercely blazing fire,

  19. like people being draped in towels

    when they are brought out of the bathhouse!

  20. They mount the dining-table as lambs' heads

    and descend from it as ostrich eggs.

  21. And after this we have whatever you desire

    of song that makes you forget the doves' singing;

  22. then narcissi, sighted and blind,

    and wine, lawful and forbidden,

  23. and a boy dressed like a girl,

    and a girl dressed like a boy.

  24. They both shoot at sorrow with twin glances of joy

    borrowed from between a wine-measure and a goblet.

  25. So obey our bidding, and we shall obey you; otherwise,

    then disobey our bidding, if you wish, in peace.

Sol 6.1