Sol 6.1

  1. They departed, while the magic of their glances enticed me.

    They went far away, while my excessive longing called me.

  2. They departed, leaving behind a discarded remnant of me

    In their dwelling—I grieve it, or it grieves me.

  3. I ask the ruins, "Where are my beloveds?"

    And the ruins ask me, "Where are my inhabitants?"

  4. Out of devotion to them, I clung to their traces.

    If only I had dealt with someone who would reward me!

  5. What longing for them I have concealed—

    Or so I think; instead, it makes me vanish.

  6. They blamed me for abandoning weeping.

    Love's affairs had drained the water from my tear ducts.

  7. The raven cawed; the yearning lover has prophetic insight.

    So I knew with certainty that it meant me.

  8. When they departed and deemed their excuse slight,

    I exchanged my hopes in them for death.

  9. I followed them, their camels carrying them to the driver's song,

    While their beauty, above those camels, urged me onward.

  10. O you who turn away, though I appeared to bid farewell,

    Return my greeting: one word will suffice me.

  11. Here is my heart: accept it, for it is

    A price I hold above anything that can be priced.

  12. They parted the silken curtains of their howdahs,

    And moons appeared to me above branches.

  13. I understood beauty's secret, though it lay concealed

    In the night of hair above the dawn of a forehead.

  14. I pledged my mind and life for a moment's halt,

    Which they withheld after taking the pledges.

  15. They received my pledge, yet did not surrender,

    Out of arrogance; I came away with a cheated man's bargain.

  16. I hoped for the covert's gazelles, but before them—

    For the grieving patricians—a lion in its lair.

  17. In yearning, I traveled the path of loving them,

    Between a captive and a man pierced through.

  18. I thought their figures' softness was also in their hearts,

    But hardness lay folded within that softness.

  19. I pledged to them that there would be no parting, but

    I had pledged to one as changeful as the chameleon.

  20. Deception brought my eyes contentment; seldom

    Do eyes find rest among wide, dark-eyed beauties.

  21. In their beauty I hoped to find their chastity;

    I did not know that ṣād does not mean sīn.

  22. I passed by the dwellings after they were gone,

    And recalled the days of my yearning and revelry.

  23. I glimpsed in Nuʿmān what would heal me,

    And saw in Yabrīn what would waste me away.

  24. Days when my gaze grazed in a garden

    Of beauty, among cheeks and eyes,

  25. Its glances scattered among the branches,

    To gather rose and eglantine together.

  26. And there I found saliva and a melody

    Sweeter than tawny wine and singing.

  27. I breathed a fragrance, and as I breathed it, fancied

    That the breeze was blowing from Dārīn.

  28. A life I enjoyed—with its departure, departed

    My patience, whose loss brought me sorrows.

  29. The heart was at ease in the palm

    Of union, among strongholds and fortresses.

  30. Now, when estrangement has settled in its dwelling,

    I have tied around it the knot of ninety.

  31. O heart, foolishly you obeyed the eyelids,

    And their languid weakness repaid you with torment.

  32. They captured you when they bound you with their magic;

    So remain forever, with neither release nor safe conduct.

  33. I thought eyelids close kin to swords;

    But no sword-wound is like a wound from eyelids.

  34. Beware the flash of glances, for it is

    An arrow for the bow of the joined brow.

  35. Make light when frightened, and know that only

    By making light can you withstand alarm.

  36. How many a reprover's words I have answered

    With the reply of one dwelling in an abode of humiliation.

  37. I could not speak in answer; instead

    I expressed with groaning what had wasted me.

  38. No advice avails a yearning lover whose body

    Has grown so thin it resembles a date-stalk.

  39. Leave aside mention of ʿUrwa, or Kuthayyir of ʿAzza,

    And Ibn al-Dhurayj, and Qays the Madman.

  40. Enough for you, of passion's sea and its storm,

    Are love's tears and the grieving man's sighs.

  41. I have no patience after them—no patience!

    Even were I to possess Shams al-Dīn's forbearance:

  42. The deeply learned beacon in whom takes pride

    The land of Iraq, as far as the lands of China;

  43. The peerless, unrivaled frontrunner

    In the arena of prescribed and customary duties;

  44. The pupil of excellence's eye, the heart within its ribs,

    By testimonies too lofty to need elucidation.

  45. Through God, or for God, or in God, is whatever

    He undertakes in movement and repose.

  46. He never brings forth a single art in invention

    Without following it with many arts.

  47. Ibn Ismāʿīl's memory, Rabīʿa's jurisprudence,

    Al-Junayd's asceticism, Plato's intelligence.

  48. If he suspects, he sends his mind to seek confirmation,

    And it brings him certainty about what he suspected.

  49. O you who challenge him with a display of your learning,

    Beware of entering the sea without a ship!

  50. Many a pretender sought what you have sought

    With fallacies decked in ornaments.

  51. He turned truth upon that confusion and dispelled it,

    As morning turns upon the dark nights.

  52. Do not seek to enumerate even some of his perfection:

    There has appeared what transcends every rule.

  53. The text of Imam al-Shāfiʿī, in an utterance,

    Is joined to truth in its verification.

  54. He cleaves his opponents' assertions as though he were

    The Legatee's sword sweeping through Ṣiffīn.

  55. Were it not for partisanship, when I heard his chamberlains,

    I would have turned from Saḥnūn to al-Muzanī.

  56. He has mastered eloquence; his like cannot be encompassed by

    The zodiac's sphere, down to the Fish's abode.

  57. He possesses every branch of greatness,

    While others practice only a single branch.

  58. His eloquence has surpassed everyone

    In both arts: the known and the conjectural.

  59. Say more! The literary arts take pride in him,

    For he excels in prose and measured verse.

  60. His mind is peace for virgin meanings,

    While other minds are war for even mature meanings.

  61. His words appeared before us, strutting proudly,

    In every guarded treasure of the sciences.

  62. He made clear, in theology and other fields,

    What had, while it existed, remained unexplained.

  63. The seas of his learning rose and cast forth

    Hidden pearls from his speech.

  64. Before him, a teacher is equal to a pupil,

    For all stand at the level of being instructed.

  65. They depart after drawing from the seas of his learning,

    With no denial and no reminders of favors.

  66. O seeker of knowledge, take this advice

    From one experienced, trustworthy in his counsel:

  67. Set no one else equal to Abū al-Maʿālī,

    Lest you compare the guaranteed with the conjectural.

  68. The sign of the character he conceals

    Is the cheerfulness shining on his blessed face.

  69. How noble a soul, made fit for precious things,

    And firmly established in the rank of mastery!

  70. If it were possible, his virtues would be recorded,

    But they have defied recording.

  71. A scholar, beside one speck of whose sea seems little

    What Būrān prepared for al-Maʾmūn.

  72. O master whose learning has embraced all creation,

    In word and deed—they have benefited, but not I.

  73. Whoever doubts that none but you is a guiding landmark

    Invalidates the proof of testimony and oath.

  74. I have bound my pledges to loyalty to you,

    And made the pillar of your majesty my support.

  75. For your sake I left all others, without looking back,

    Thus leaving Tammūz for Tishrīn.

  76. I paired gratitude to you with obligatory duties, exalting it,

    And found it the finest companion to obligation.

  77. I fashioned praise, though others had already praised you,

    So it seems I have come with borrowed verse.

  78. I never uttered poetry, but your auspicious blessing

    Takes my right hand through every difficulty.

  79. I have sent it, knowing that it is

    Subject to criticism, but your pardon excuses me.

  80. Here it is for you: it scorns anyone else, even were he

    Endowed with Kisrā's kingdom or Qārūn's wealth.

  81. Had I hung its ornaments upon anyone else,

    Its commendation would have become a funeral elegy.

  82. I did not pray for worldly life for you, since its very word

    Is lowly, and I will not accept lowliness for you.

  83. So it falls to me to pray for your long continuance,

    And to all people to say "Amen."

Sol 6.1