Sol 6.1

  1. He drove the heart toward passion and took its burden on,

    then wronged me after treating me graciously.

  2. He led the desires of souls, so you see

    only reason departing and love approaching,

  3. in everyone who spends the darkness restless

    for love of one who spends the daylight being coy.

  4. A gazelle, resembling clustered myrtle in his hair,

    roses in his cheek, and daisies in his kissable mouth.

  5. Whenever he desires a stroll in a garden,

    he faces a mirror and gazes at his face.

  6. When he appears, you imagine the crescent moon; when he steps,

    you imagine a bough; when he gazes, a gazelle fawn.

  7. In every limb of his is a unique beauty;

    no gaze settles on his grace and then departs.

  8. He shoots and strikes dead wherever he wishes, as though

    he finds a fatal spot in every limb.

  9. He regards meeting, though lawful, as forbidden,

    and sorrow, though forbidden, as lawful.

  10. Enduring passion, when near him, was

    honey; when he turned away, it became bitter colocynth.

  11. Why does he, whose stature bears the mark of balance,

    refuse to act justly, though I made him judge?

  12. O you who kindle hostility against me because I

    cheapened myself for passion when it rose high,

  13. long sleeplessness has changed me, as though

    I had been made to forget the longer estrangement before me.

  14. I reinforced my tears with emaciation as testimony

    to my passion; he told me neither would be accepted.

  15. He regarded my claim to love as a false claim of lineage.

    How could that be, when my lineage rebukes an impostor?

  16. Say what you wish, for I am obedient to you;

    the lover is surely tried by the one he loves.

  17. What is the state of one who melted his heart into tears

    and bent it toward you in yearning, never finding solace?

  18. My eyelids have grown sore since you turned away;

    their remedy is the kohl of clear sight.

  19. His love has exhausted my endurance, yet I

    spend time remembering him, seeking solace.

  20. In remembering one you love, and in his traces,

    there is solace; whoever lacks an image conjures one.

  21. When the lover visits the house

    where the beloved stayed, he loves that dwelling.

  22. How wondrous the days of union! For

    time in them bore a shining blaze and white feet.

  23. When we had no raven croaking between us,

    we drove away those who informed on us and defied reproachers.

  24. We passed it round, red and ruby-bright,

    of which the hands of decay had left only the description.

  25. It grew so delicate with age that you imagined it

    tears, and imagined the wine jar a kohl-darkened eyelid.

  26. I have neither seen nor heard of anything like it:

    a body whose very existence becomes imaginary.

  27. He broke the seal; I said, “A gilded page!”

    The bubbles had inscribed upon it a finely marked script.

  28. Spring's rare gifts brought us wonders,

    at which the face of the earth began to beam.

  29. They made a garden grow in every plain,

    having brought forth a stream in every rugged upland.

  30. They clothed the broad paths in tunics of fine silk,

    where the moist breeze finds a change of attire.

  31. The blossoms, some like dinars, some like dirhams,

    wherever you turned, filled the open expanse.

  32. The wind plays with the branches, like

    hands twirling pliant lances.

  33. The clouds have veiled the sky with a striped mantle,

    loosely woven by the wind's hand.

  34. They arrived, trailing their skirts with a swagger,

    like a sacrificial beast walking heavily laden.

  35. They feared the breeze would scatter their gathered mass,

    so drew against it a blade of lightning.

  36. With lightning flashing above, they seemed

    a hand moving its fingers in reckoning.

  37. Until, when their pearls had fully formed,

    they cast them into the wilderness's lap, then cleared away.

  38. In their thunder and lightning, you imagine them

    smiling at one moment, wailing at another.

  39. The rain attacks the rust of dust, as though

    in tending to the earth it had become a burnisher.

  40. In its effect, it is like a beloved suitor,

    and in its blossoms, a bride unveiled for admiration.

  41. The earth spoke its thanks for rain through what it entrusted

    to the breeze's fragrance, without moving a tongue.

  42. The twigs bend in their decorated brocade,

    proudly, their partings and necks adorned.

  43. They strung the beads of dew among their blossoms,

    as though garlanded with a crown of silver.

  44. The market of revelry arose there, and seldom

    did you find me except firmly settled in it.

  45. You see the clouds serving drinks, and the doves

    singing, and the breeze wailing.

  46. That season's beauty lies only in its wish

    to imitate the supreme commander,

  47. the unique, peerless one, who embraces humankind

    with valor and generosity, awe and beneficence.

  48. The imam's sword, his spear, and his devoted friend—

    and war is a fire, but not one to warm yourself by.

  49. Leadership—how great an office it is!

    The island's axis—how great a station it is!

  50. Fair remembrance was assured him at once

    by his bounty, and abundant reward in time to come.

  51. The greatest affairs were entrusted to him; he left

    not one matter neglected in them, praise be to God.

  52. He healed hearts of their enemies in a narrow battle-struggle

    that ravenously fed upon the souls of armored champions.

  53. He rightfully owns the qualities of greatness; another

    comes only as an intruder to their attributes.

  54. They sought to catch him, but came in last;

    they raced, while he arrived ahead, beaming.

  55. When he stumbles in an assembly, or sits with knees drawn up,

    you see him like a sea that has overtopped Yadhbul.

  56. Many a day, above which Death had

    gathered clouds pouring down deadly venom:

  57. birds circling over heads, driven on

    by Death, seeking access to souls,

  58. leaving the armored warrior dust-strewn, the slender spear

    splintered, and the Mashrafi sword notched.

  59. A stout-bodied lion dispelled its terrors,

    shoeing feet with the heads of armored men.

  60. A Trinitarian, his sword drawn in his hand,

    with Death brushing both his flanks, proclaimed God's oneness.

  61. Before your cavalry reached him, he ended the evening an unbeliever

    in ignorance, and rose a devout Muslim,

  62. in a stand where his spearheads were breaking

    their fast, but his Aʿwaji horses were not.

  63. He joined bravery with generosity, becoming

    a blazing fire and smoothly flowing water.

  64. When roused, he is a lion in onslaught,

    and in lineage, noble in his paternal and maternal uncles.

  65. He fulfilled the obligations of his generosity righteously,

    then continued fulfilling them in voluntary devotion.

  66. He meets the armored warrior when he advances lance in hand,

    and turns away from him when he retreats unarmed.

  67. Versatile in war, however it changes,

    he moves with generosity wherever he goes.

  68. Ask the worshippers of the cross about him: you will be asking

    a target of humiliation, bound and felled.

  69. They do not lift an eye toward anyone calling,

    in abasement, nor in fear find a refuge.

  70. They did not surrender their homelands until they saw

    blows to necks added to spear-thrusts in kidneys.

  71. They submitted to him and recovered their remaining breaths

    from him; whoever found acceptance made his excuses.

  72. O son of the champions, in whom

    the utmost limits of reason and the ornaments of greatness culminated,

  73. each bright of brow, whom you would imagine

    amid battle's turmoil, a finely jointed sinew.

  74. Yours, O Abu Abd al-Ilah, are virtues

    that please your God and the prophet sent as messenger.

  75. You set against your enemies a heart that has remained

    submissive and trusting in its affairs.

  76. You made the unknown terrain of every virtue a landmark,

    and made every landmark of ignorance an unknown waste.

  77. Courage was a fortress behind you,

    and awe became an army at your back.

  78. O leader of wrathful lions—they were likened

    to lions because you were the foremost among them.

  79. May you rejoice that you left no fear in a breast

    ascribed to you, nor any place barren.

  80. Your high deeds dazzled Iraq, then Persia,

    then al-Sham, then al-Fustat, then Mosul.

  81. Tell the one speaking of

    generosity: gently! I do not accept unsupported reports.

  82. Here is generosity seen firsthand; leave aside what

    hearsay related about it in times gone by.

  83. Here it is for you, son of the noble, from a visitor

    who would choose no host for his visit but you.

  84. He praises what you pledged before, with a tongue

    you drenched with kindness—one that would fashion cloves.

  85. He saluted you despite the distant journey; would that he

    were the poem, and so attained what he hoped for.

  86. For one who camps beneath your shelter, it is merit enough,

    and glory enough, to behold those ornaments.

  87. They baffled Habib and al-Walid, and before him

    baffled Jarir, al-Baʿith, and Jandal.

  88. I hoped to expand my praise, but my utmost reach

    is to scatter praises in a concise summation.

  89. May you ever remain in goodness and exalted rank,

    filled with happiness and advancing good fortune,

  90. so long as your land is sought, evening and morning,

    by one with little whom you send back wealthy.

  91. And I have conveyed your merit where its telling will endure,

    in memory, its account joined in an unbroken chain.

Sol 6.1