Sol 6

  1. The visiting dream-image insists on nothing but deception,

    while your image intends never to visit.

  2. I do not dislike the dream-image itself,

    but I dislike a reunion that is false.

  3. To God I complain of what is within my breast;

    my two sides contain a blaze from it.

  4. Each day it parts me from a friend

    and robs me of a companion.

  5. If you ask me, my friend,

    about swift night travel, you will find me experienced.

  6. Each day the riders see me

    leave a dwelling and take up a camel saddle.

  7. When I leave my friend, I say: Count

    the years until my return, and set aside the months.

  8. I seem twenty years old or less,

    yet my verse has crossed the earth by night.

  9. Whenever I compose a line, it keeps

    crossing plains and traversing rough ground.

  10. If a dead man could take pride in the living,

    Abu Hashim would take pride in me.

  11. If I sought what I deserve,

    I would seek nothing less than the throne.

  12. Were I to travel, the kings of the lands would cry

    before me, “To arms! To arms!”

  13. Yet I am content with a little,

    if God makes that little easy to obtain.

  14. When people speak at length of the rain cloud’s virtues,

    I have seen no one on earth but Kathir who embodies them:

  15. a young man whose two cloaks are filled with eminence,

    nobility, glory, generosity, and goodness.

  16. When the throne embraces him, you find him

    a rain-bearing cloud and a shining full moon.

  17. And when battle brings him forth, you think him

    a keen sword and a fierce lion.

  18. At times he bestows, at times he destroys;

    at times he gives refuge, at times he strikes down.

  19. In his shelter, you see the tongue of hopes

    stretch far, while the reach of nights grows short.

  20. The thrones hold his brilliance,

    and seasoned steeds bear his destructive force.

  21. To you I offer a maiden of verse that has

    outstripped Tayy and made Jarir run.

  22. When I recite it, it silences the

    age and makes even rocks hear my words.

  23. And if the listeners’ hearts

    could do so, they would split open their breasts for me.

  24. I seek no bridal gift for her

    except that you bring my request to the prince.

  25. For you are his hand and his tongue

    when time brings a great crisis.

  26. May you two remain the arms of eminence:

    one called the prince, and you called the vizier.

Sol 6