جل والله ما دهاك وعزا — أبو الحسن الجرجاني

Great, by God, and grievous is what has befallen you.

So take comfort, for the noble man is consoled.

And the prudent, noble man is he who, if struck by

a calamity after he has known honor, receives consolation.

These are, as you know, the ravages of time,

which have spared no safeguarded stores or treasure.

They openly assailed the state of the caliphate,

and annihilated its pillar and al-Muʿizz.

And long ago they annihilated Jadīs and Ṭasm,

driving them forcefully to the graves.

Listen and look at their dwellings: do you see

a single one of them, and hear the faintest sound?

The steed is gone; so seek God's reward and bear patiently

the calamities, for the freeborn man takes consolation.

For one like him, the resolute man's heart was distraught,

shaken with grief and roused to lamentation.

He did not yield the reins in meek

submission, nor was he skittish or averse.

Many a day I saw him among sleek steeds

following at his heels while he galloped in bounds.

And it was as though eyes, gazing at him, were fixed

on a sword brandished vigorously in the sun.

And you see him playing with the eye until

the eye imagines he is mocking it.

And it was all alike to him: travelling at noon or

by night, descending or climbing a rise.

And it was as though from the racecourse there emerged

the surface of a sand-bed well, steadily oozing water.

The wild beasts have found respite from him; once

he would sight them, and they found no refuge from him.

How many a gazelle he bore down upon, and a wild ass

he caught; how many a wild-cow calf he hunted!

And time's vicissitudes single out, among

the noblest youth's gains, what is dearest.

So if you feel, from anguish at misfortune,

a stab within your heart and breast,

then recall those fleet steeds to which this horse

was traced whenever he was praised.

Where are Shaqq, Dāḥis, and Ḍabīb?

Time's calamities bore hard upon them.

They slew the noble Dhū al-Limmah, and pressed

Ẓarib, al-Lizāz, and al-Sakb hard.

And indeed they carried off al-Wajīh and Maktūm,

of Banū Aʿṣur, and Aʿwaj, as plunder.

And they assailed Lāḥiq and struck him down,

and Ghurāb and Zahdam, sweeping them away.

So praise God: the lightest loss you suffer

is one for which you yourself receive consolation.

We have indeed lamented him, spared no effort, and gone

to great lengths; yet part would have sufficed him and served.

And it is just that you be rewarded, Abū

ʿĪsā, according to what we have done, and that we be recompensed.