Sol 6.1

  1. Sleep has lasted long; care descended and clung close.

    And what use is remembering one already gone and lost?

  2. Youth was a mantle in which I sheltered,

    And took shade for a time; then it vanished.

  3. My head was changed to gray after dark tresses,

    Luxuriant, with no recession visible at the temple.

  4. Though a surge of youthful folly has passed,

    And God brought piety after youthful passion,

  5. I have spent nights whispering to a tender maiden close beside me,

    Upon the cushions, delighted with her, enthralled.

  6. Her teeth gleamed; delight in her healed the soul,

    When the one kissing her pressed his lips to hers.

  7. Like daisies on the meadow's open ground, visited at dawn

    By rain that scattered spray but did not drench them.

  8. And many a companionable night among the nights of time—

    Beneath its shade I found sights and sounds.

  9. And many a calamity that, had an archer hurled it at a stone,

    Hard, of solid flint, would have split it apart—

  10. Came upon me, yet I gave it nothing to plunder,

    Nor did I lament it with complaint or panic.

  11. A man does not, however long he remains unharmed,

    Know what he will meet before it occurs.

  12. A man never ceases searching out his resting places

    Until he lies settled in the farthest of them.

  13. The earth ambushes people and destroys them;

    You see none of its inhabitants escape.

  14. Until, when it swallows a whole generation,

    The next among its inhabitants meets its ravenous hunger.

  15. No one eats from what it grows,

    Even if he roams the horizons in search of pasture,

  16. Without its becoming a ghoul to him and destroying him,

    As though he were food that stuck in the throat, then was swallowed.

  17. They add nothing to its breadth, though it devours

    Many of them, nor do they quench its thirst or hunger.

  18. You never see a dead man live again to question him,

    Nor has youth returned to a gray-haired man.

  19. Flight does not delay an imminent death,

    Nor does facing battle make it come more swiftly.

  20. Life endures forever for no human,

    Even if he stores up pleasures from its delights.

  21. If death ever missed a thing or passed it by,

    It would have missed the white-footed, mountain-climbing young ibex,

  22. On a towering peak whose summit birds fear,

    Rising above the lofty heights, beyond us, over high crags and rocky peaks.

  23. And a she-camel of proven endurance may soothe my care,

    Newly mature, her canine having only just emerged.

  24. She ranged wild, unmated among the dry-uddered camels, and wandered

    Away from the herds, bright patches marking her coat.

  25. A skilled camel-herder tends her, either keeping her without water

    For a long spell, or letting her graze in watered hollows,

  26. Until a tall, full hump rises upon her;

    And often she has shed tufts from her skin.

  27. She sprays sweat from behind her ears; when driven,

    Her nose-ring rises above her muzzle, and it bends low.

  28. Slender as a bow-case, giving her her first drink

    In gulps from surging water in a rain-filled basin.

  29. As though the space between her flanks and breast

    And her elbows, when their two armpits weep,

  30. Were two plains between hills, with gaps between them,

    Parting around a rocky ridge, then joining again.

  31. As though she had a purpose at the farthest height,

    When daylight rises high upon the rays of forenoon.

  32. May He to whom the pure prayers belong send blessings,

    And the Muslims, when they gather for Friday prayers,

  33. Upon him who plainly outstrips the peoples

    In reward and praise, until both accompany him together.

  34. He is the one whose community the Merciful united

    Through his hands; before him they were factions.

  35. We sought refuge with the Lord of the Throne from living on and losing him,

    Or becoming followers of a shepherd after him.

  36. There were heads among the enemies that you ground down,

    So every plot was repelled by God's leave.

  37. Captives and spoils kept being dragged

    To him by his claws, until they came to him together.

  38. Indeed, al-Walid, Commander of the Faithful, possesses

    A character God has aided, and so he rose high.

  39. People cannot withhold what He gave—those who are

    His servants—nor are they given what He withheld.

  40. He rose to an honor above which there is no honor;

    He has climbed every height of it.

  41. Indeed, kings—and I have no wish to disparage them—

    Will never gather the heights of power that he has gathered.

  42. No advance has ever been other than below his advance,

    Nor any benefits other than below the good he has done.

  43. No generous man among the peoples equals him

    In giving; he is the worthiest of men to give abundantly.

  44. None tends a favor more faithfully when he bestows it,

    Until he completes it or bestows prosperity through it.

  45. Nor is anyone more fit to deal justly with his subjects;

    He has neither wavered in judgment nor leaned to one side.

  46. God manifested the Muslims' victory through him,

    And turned every abomination away from their faith.

  47. He led while still a youth, until, when he attained

    His full strength, he rose high in authority and grew complete,

  48. And God tied the cords of affairs to him,

    No bearer could carry more than what he shouldered.

  49. He never complained of his back beneath its crushing load,

    Nor shrank beneath a burden, nor limped.

  50. No generous man can keep pace with him;

    Whoever undertakes a task after him draws back.

  51. I praise him, but cannot count his bounties,

    And my praise ends in the wake of what he has done.

Sol 6.1