Sol 6.1

  1. Bend kindly toward us, O tender branch.

    Is there no sniff of you to enjoy, nor a bite?

  2. Your fruit is a harvest holding healing and health,

    Yet in your gaze there is nothing for us but sickness.

  3. You left my physician bewildered about me, weeping

    Over me, with an eye that slumber never clasps.

  4. And he marvels that I can manage to answer him,

    Though the pulse at my pulse-point has almost vanished.

  5. Then how long will you not heal the sick man with a visit

    Which is the life-breath of the body with no flesh left?

  6. She appeared late at night in a saffron-colored robe, beneath which

    Lay gauzy robes of light, filled with fresh, tender hail.

  7. And she swayed as a bamboo stem sways, and shielded herself

    With the loveliest blackness, within which whiteness appeared.

  8. Yet she broke the pledge of sincere affection, as though she were

    People whose desire is to break their pledges.

  9. Base men who, whenever I am absent, gather together

    For ends I do not desire; but if I appear, they scatter.

  10. I scatter them when I swoop upon them,

    As the goshawk begins to swoop upon the birds.

  11. They count a friend's kindness as an offense,

    And wish to be pleased, yet refuse to please.

  12. And God's favor has earned me their hatred,

    So may the blessing never cease, nor the hatred depart.

  13. And whenever a base man found fault with me,

    Tormented by a grudge that stung within his breast,

  14. I would refuse, for my glory's sake, to vie with his like;

    And far be it for earth to match the sky.

  15. And why should I fear an envier or an adversary,

    When he has no sway over me, to grant or withhold?

  16. My arrows are my pens, and my sword is my tongue;

    With it I ever deflower the virgins of eloquence.

  17. They show you the smiling faces of noble deeds,

    And clarify darkened affairs, so they turn white.

  18. And how often it has established as true a matter that is false,

    And how often it has refuted truth that admits no refutation.

  19. And all you could wish for: a self-restrained soul, a way

    That is noble, and a nature whose parts mirror one another.

  20. Otherwise, much, much kindness I withheld would weep;

    Then I have for it stirring, urging, and encouragement.

  21. And I honored my reputation with my wealth, thus safeguarding it;

    And whoever gives freely never has his honor stained.

  22. And I was made to bear the burdens of debt; indeed,

    The sign of a man's generosity is that borrowing abounds.

  23. And I secured a friend's secrets in a stronghold

    Of safekeeping in my care, whose seal is never broken.

  24. O Abu Bakr, remain well for friendship and sincerity;

    For your affection endures, neither changing nor wearing thin.

  25. We have been afflicted with people whose missteps we overlook,

    While their aim is to disparage and belittle us.

  26. And you are a man who stays clear when others grow turbid,

    And stays sweet when sourness taints their affection.

  27. Whenever a friend suffers from the change of a brother

    Who is treacherous, my share of your affection is ease.

Sol 6.1