Sol 6.1

  1. Why should an old man trouble himself with a beauty,

    When he is like foam upon the water?

  2. He plays the youth, though it is no time for youthful dalliance,

    With oryx eyes and a herd of gazelles.

  3. By my life, no maiden loves

    A decrepit old man, even if he became one of the caliphs.

  4. She loves the youth of delicate bearing,

    As a drought-stricken man loves unfailing rains.

  5. How could she not, when he anoints her sores

    With tar ointment that heightens her burning anguish?

  6. He indeed resembles her in delicacy, and she resembles him;

    So in love they blend like air with air.

  7. Not like a thirsty man who halts beside a well,

    Without a bucket to lower or a rope.

  8. He gazes at the water in sorrow, though he is

    Near it, yet in the plight of one far away.

  9. Every combatant who readies a blunt sword

    For battle finds it betrays him in battle.

  10. Thus prudence counsels that you be a coward,

    Like the Samiri, making seclusion your creed.

  11. How strange! How often I have seen wealth guarded,

    And a heart left as plunder in women's hands.

  12. And if a prudent man takes care to preserve his wealth,

    His strength is more deserving of preservation.

  13. So men are alike in such a matter;

    The madmen are like the wise in it.

  14. What good are a father's sons to him,

    When he flees from them on the Day of Recompense?

  15. The godfearing, rightly guided, dutiful one among them

    Is nonexistent, like the Anqa known only by hearsay.

  16. And when one among them is taken for a man of letters,

    He trails his hems in arrogance,

  17. Scorns the elders and challenges the vast

    Sea, in ignorance, with an incantator's breath.

  18. A stumpy tail, by your life, is better

    Than a long one dragged through filth.

  19. And it is a grievous loss to forsake an abode of eternity

    And permanence, and embrace an abode of extinction;

  20. And to be preoccupied with Fartana and Lubna,

    And with Da'd, instead of seeking a houri's hand.

  21. And though the night of my head has become morning,

    And my gray hair has betrayed me to the beauty,

  22. My wood is indeed hard to those who test it,

    And my heart is like a keen, cutting sword.

  23. And I fulfill my desire and drench

    The spear's point with the virgin's blood.

  24. And I am a delight to my friend's eye,

    And a mote in the eye sockets of my enemies.

  25. The calamities of time have refined me until

    I became like reunion after long estrangement.

  26. So my ships sail with the most favorable wind,

    Not with a feeble, cross-blowing wind.

  27. Through Ali ibn Tawba, my lot-arrow has won,

    And my ambition has soared above al-Jawza.

  28. Congratulations to us and the faith on a judge

    Like him, learned in delivering decisive judgment.

  29. He settles matters through governance and

    Justice, as a keen sword cuts down enemies.

  30. If Iyas met him, he would confess:

    Those who called me intelligent were mistaken.

  31. And if the shrewd men of every age

    Had tested him, they would bow to his shrewdness.

  32. Or if Ahnaf, or one more forbearing than he, saw

    His forbearance, they would not count themselves among the forbearing.

  33. If the fair-minded saw the sea of his generosity,

    They would rank Hatim among the misers.

  34. He keeps his pledges more faithfully than al-Samaw'al,

    And has never ceased to be enamored of fidelity.

  35. And the rain of the clouds is ashamed whenever

    His palm streams with a downpour of gifts.

  36. The learned in every discipline testify

    That he is like a meteor among scholars.

  37. The judges of the age are earth beside him,

    And above them he is like the horizon of heaven.

  38. I have indeed attempted his praise, yet it is as though

    I challenged an ocean to a bucket-drawing contest.

  39. So I am left speechless, although my horses

    Cannot be matched on the poets' racecourse.

  40. He has indeed clothed me, through his glory, in a robe of pride;

    It grew long until I dragged it behind me.

  41. And if I gave him his due—and even that were little—

    My cheek would be a shoe for his foot.

  42. So I am his servant, and that is my pride,

    And my beauty among humankind, and my splendor.

  43. And my praise is reserved for him, and my thanks,

    And my prayer for him to live long.

Sol 6.1