Sol 6

  1. May happiness be yours, As‘ad; O breeze from the heights,

    Is that a breath of lavender, or the scent of balsam?

  2. Have you come to me from a springtime fragrant with flowers,

    So that the Egypt and Syria of my heart grow sweet with it?

  3. By God, tell me the truth, O breeze:

    Bless you, what are these flashes seen in the distance?

  4. Has the cloud of joy smiled with glad tidings?

    Has a mouth opened in a smile, or has wine been passed around?

  5. It said: Yes, the hours of your happiness have dawned,

    And from them the full moon has appeared.

  6. In it, our Akkar grew clear when

    Tents rose for it on the heights of great happiness.

  7. There the sun of good fortune shone for one who became

    Ali, whose station is the highest good fortune.

  8. To me, the light of this sun is only the bounty

    Of hands that pour out generosity like clouds.

  9. Hands whose palm has shown us the finest open hand,

    Reviving virtue from death, though it lay in ruins.

  10. My shortcomings at the gate of praise have exhausted my powers,

    Even if I could string the stars into a necklace.

  11. A brave warrior you see smiling among the battalions,

    With a mouth like a garden flower still in bud.

  12. Death-dealing spears: their points adorn the heads

    Like garden branches with doves perched above them.

  13. Then beneath the arch of their curved brows you see

    Eyes that make out the letter lām, though it is no lām.

  14. He plunges into the sea of war with his face veiled,

    Though the full moon there wears no veil.

  15. He kindles the fire of war where its thirst

    Has sparks, and days are bound in clouds of dust.

  16. And when a prayer niche is raised in the mosque of might,

    The Indian swords pray, and he is their imam.

  17. Say to whoever would rival him: stop. I do not say

    That you can vie with towering heights when you are but a mound.

  18. This is Ali, blessed by fortune in lofty rank;

    Happiness is his servant, and time his page.

  19. The chapter of his generosity effaced the verse of al-Ṭāʾī,

    As a sign of night is erased by daylight.

  20. He is the sea, yet the shore of his bounty is generous land;

    People have plunged into it, plunged again, and swum.

  21. And in praising him, I swim in this sea,

    Though faultfinders reproach and blame me for it.

  22. The spring to which my praise comes cures my thirst;

    Praise of anyone else is sickness and affliction.

  23. And any pretender who claims someone else: summon him

    To face what clear proofs establish.

  24. The dawn of all others in noble deeds is a first dawn;

    This is the second, marked by its own sign.

  25. How many cups of companionship from the wine of his nature

    Pass among us when we are drinking companions.

  26. His words are permissible magic; any others,

    When my ears hear them, are forbidden.

  27. Neither Aḥnaf in forbearance nor Maʿn in generosity compares;

    This man is, for each, an ʿUrwa and an ʿIṣām.

  28. Without his bounty, no poet’s verse would stand;

    And can a house stand without a supporting pillar?

  29. In his time, someone like me has no aim

    But him; among the generous, I seek no one else.

  30. Where are the generous people? Where are their great ones?

    Yes, beneath the soil they are bones worn by decay.

  31. The garden of the virtuous has withered for want of generous fruit,

    And only castor plants and coarse grass remain.

  32. So turn toward the refuge of the neighbor of the esteemed one,

    Who has pledged us faithful protection.

  33. He called us with an eye and clothed us in his lām,

    And a yāʾ of the right hand joined fast to the left.

  34. Springtime of high rank is watched over by an eye of care,

    While the eyes of those who envy him sleep.

  35. Noble deeds gave birth to him; after him

    They became barren, and barren they remain.

  36. O moon of happiness that rose in our night of distress,

    Our hope and aim shone forth with it in fullness.

  37. O branch in virtue’s garden, never shaken

    By a sluggish, dark breeze or by wine.

  38. Toward you we urge the swift mounts of praise,

    And you are the thread on which its pearls are strung.

  39. Without you, the tongue would utter no praise

    Like pearls, nor would the pearls of a necklace be prized.

  40. Without the clarity of your gifts, Akkar would not have grown clear,

    Nor would its water have seemed pleasing while its springs were still.

  41. See how, for God’s sake, the eye of high rank

    Stayed awake to tend its people, so they could sleep.

  42. And take, may God protect you, this daughter of my imagination:

    She feels youthful longing and love for Ali.

Sol 6