Sol 6.1

  1. I have seen none like young men, cheated by the

    Days, forgetting what their consequences are.

  2. As long as they are heedless, they know no bereavement;

    In every turn of fortune, the days' designs advance.

  3. They see their brothers and their deaths,

    And how the days' claws slay them unawares.

  4. What do souls hope for from seeking

    Good, when love of life deceives them?

  5. They think they will never be struck by the hardship of

    Time, though death's vicissitudes oppress them.

  6. What remains after Sana'a, once inhabited by

    Rulers of a realm, lavish in its gifts?

  7. Its builders raised it beside the scattered

    Rain-clouds, and its chambers dripped musk.

  8. Ringed by mountains, shielded from the reach of

    Hostile plotting; the mountains' peaks rose within it.

  9. The singer's voice grew joyful there when

    Its flute-player answered it at dusk.

  10. The workings of fate brought it the army of Banu al-

    Ahrar, its horsemen forming columns.

  11. And led mules across the desert, laden with

    Death, their foals hastening with them.

  12. Until the princes saw it from the edge of the

    Mountain pass, its battalions green.

  13. On the day they cried, 'O Berber and al-

    Yaksum! Let none of its fugitives escape!'

  14. And it was a day whose tale endured, and

    A prosperous state, firm in its ranks, vanished.

  15. Open space was exchanged for a throng, and the

    Days are treacherous, their wonders many.

  16. After the sons of Tubba', those noble chieftains,

    Under whom its satraps had rested secure.

  17. And on Hatra a calamity descended,

    Through a breach whose flanks were mighty.

  18. A girl reared in his care did not protect her father,

    Because of her love, when her guardian was neglected.

  19. Her love compelled her to do what she did,

    When her chamberlain slept, leaving her to wrongdoing.

  20. When she gave him clear red wine at evening—

    And wine is bewilderment; its drinker wanders mad.

  21. And she surrendered her lord that night,

    Thinking that the chieftain would seek her hand.

  22. So the bride's lot, at the breaking of the

    Dawn, was blood flowing in ribbons.

  23. And Hatra was razed and plundered; already

    Her clothes-racks had been burned in her private chamber.

  24. Nothing remained there but wind-swept rock

    Ledges and wastelands whose foxes yelped.

  25. And I was not ignorant of calamities or the

    Days; their seeker does not abstain.

  26. My share shall be of beauty; so I do not

    Tread a path whose gains are hard-won.

  27. And I keep to the course that guarantees

    Good, though some of them shun it.

  28. And I seek the noble course with

    Strength, though its seeker is crushed.

  29. Ah, how many people have I bestowed favors upon!

    Am I today, then, Amr, the one who overturns them?

  30. They were not sincere, as one intent on it pursues

    His treacherous purpose, while the heart dreads it.

  31. The knot of the bonds keeps me from

    Striving, as does pity for a soul I reproach.

Sol 6.1