Sol 6.1

  1. He watched al-Sham's lightning, distraught in Rum;

    and his eyelids began to scatter tears.

  2. It flashed from the heights of Damascus late at night,

    like a lamp flaring swiftly in the night.

  3. It crossed the horizons as it flashed,

    and reached Rum like a snake crossing by night.

  4. Its banners fluttered on its horizon,

    like the beating of a heart now terrified.

  5. Its flame struck within the breast,

    and its radiance rose high in the air.

  6. None knows its impact but a sorrowing man

    who, like me, has left his homelands and abodes;

  7. or one tormented by a love that enslaved him,

    for a gazelle now withholding union,

  8. who puts the sun to shame in splendor and radiance,

    and the desert oryx in the grace and length of the neck.

  9. He kept the eyelid sleepless, empty of slumber—

    an eye never nourished with sleep's repose.

  10. How can an eye sleep when it has lost

    the pupil of life, for a watch of the night?

  11. And a youth whose prime had just begun

    was only a brief span for this servant amid estrangement.

  12. It was only a dream, and it ended,

    or a vision in slumber that passed swiftly.

  13. Its regret resolved never to end;

    ah, how quickly it went, hastening away!

  14. I seek no favor of watering for it,

    while the eyelid's cloud waters its spring.

  15. What stirred the inward grief was a turtledove,

    cooing in the grove at forenoon.

  16. Whenever she lamented upon her branches,

    she stirred the lover to passion and ardor.

  17. And whenever she sang to him, there came to him

    a memory of al-Sham that increased his yearning.

  18. Ah, may God water its sanctuary with a downpour,

    rain with lowered gaze, pouring in streams.

  19. Where its quarter of pleasure is inhabited,

    and all the haunts lie in its dwelling places.

  20. Every tender maiden is clothed in youth's prime,

    and beauty robes her in wondrous brocade.

  21. She has had no guardian but youth's first bloom,

    and love that answers obediently if she calls it.

  22. How many a sweet-natured woman we have among them,

    a lovely, attentive maiden whom the heart adores.

  23. I do not forget the hour of farewell, when

    she stood, humbled, at the place of parting,

  24. scattering pearls from narcissi

    upon roses almost wafting their fragrance.

  25. She clung to my hem, and her strength betrayed her;

    she collapsed, felled by the blow of parting.

  26. She revived, with the first stirrings of grief within her,

    then spoke, lamenting a treacherous age:

  27. May God not protect lofty honors as a goal!

    How many a passionate lover you see enthralled by them!

  28. You were a shining full moon for me, then vanished

    into moonless darkness after a rising that brought joy.

  29. And a youth that shone as a full moon when

    it set the head aglow, then departed, causing dismay.

  30. O departing one, while the heart, following

    in his wake, has stayed distraught since he set out,

  31. do not forget our covenant after leaving me;

    O my life, turn back toward me.

  32. And if you do not honor my pledge, remember

    the bond of those you left behind, and the nursing child.

  33. How can you forget Zaynab or her sister,

    who sheds tears whenever she says, 'Father'?

  34. They both have a claim upon you, however long the distance:

    an obligation to honor and a covenant—neither to be lost.

  35. And tears run as an intercessor, pearl upon pearl,

    like pearls whose fall resembles frost.

  36. I said: 'An intercessor is far beyond reach, unless I see

    Sa'd al-Din's bounty interceding for them.'

  37. Sa'd of God's religion, the manifestation of His secret,

    in a revelation reaching the lofty vault.

  38. Revealer of kindnesses, overflowing with generosity,

    through favors that put spring rain to shame.

  39. A scholar of sweet character, an ascetic,

    whose humility grows whenever his piety grows.

  40. Devout toward God, filled with reverent fear,

    he spends the night standing and bowing.

  41. Pure in character, chaste of hem, he is not

    beguiled by either side of the world in its abundance.

  42. Illuminated in judgment, awe-inspiring in intellect,

    openhandedly generous—how many favors he has bestowed!

  43. A sword of his has protected Islam,

    turning dire calamity away from us,

  44. and a pen that strings the shooting stars; and if

    it scatters pearls, it clothes the meadow in embroidery.

  45. Whenever it moves across the parchment, you would think it

    a mighty speckled serpent gliding through the meadow.

  46. It breathes honey to one who hopes for his friendship,

    and deadly poison for one who seeks his enmity.

  47. Since he settled as a mountain for the kingdom, still

    its pillar stands secure against time's misfortunes.

  48. He girds his loins with forbearance when

    the raging wind of recklessness shakes a ridge.

  49. O traveler, following the path of guidance

    on the roads of truth, cease walking in panic.

  50. And hasten to Sa'd's threshold; its light

    has broken forth from the horizon of truth.

  51. The chosen imam, Sa'd, the joy of mankind,

    he awaits the people as followers.

  52. Possessor of distinction and the light that

    has filled the horizons and the universe, spreading everywhere.

  53. He is the shadow of the shadow; and the shadow, as

    has been said, is the very sun—if you can hear.

  54. His essence is hidden only from

    one born blind, who cannot know the breaking dawn.

  55. Ranks beneath which fall, exhausted,

    the far-reaching ambitions, collapsing.

  56. Not attained through striving—no! Rather,

    it is God's bounty, made manifest in him.

  57. O master, whose thresholds

    have become a spacious abode for the learned,

  58. good fortune has erected in their precincts

    a lofty house of bounty to which people make pilgrimage.

  59. Its corner is a corner we cling to,

    and his sanctuary is a sacred precinct found impregnable.

  60. Thus the sons of hope circle around it,

    seeking bounty from his bounty, coming for sustenance.

  61. And the sons of letters in his courtyards

    have settled, weaving wondrous embroidery.

  62. And the kings of verse and prose within them

    show submission in awe of his speech.

  63. Ah, how wondrous Sa'd's precincts have become!

    Their sanctuary recalls al-Fadl and al-Rabi'.

  64. For if Ibn 'Abbad were to pass through them,

    he would see excellence that made him forget al-Badi'.

  65. And he would know that lofty attainments were not

    confined to one age, but were bounty spread abroad.

  66. By my life, their dwelling place is for us

    a garden whose rivers flow from springs.

  67. I seek to reside there, just as

    your bounty seeks to spread throughout the world.

  68. And my tongue longs for your secret, so that it may

    scatter beneficence abroad over the earth,

  69. through the regions of Damascus, and see

    a dwelling the body left in anguish.

  70. We have not drunk the water—no—nor tasted the herbage

    for two years; enough that I should waste away!

  71. They have no one there except their master,

    and then this servant—so send him swiftly.

  72. May you never cease, through time, to give gift after gift,

    with favors whose beneficence puts the clouds to shame,

  73. amid prosperity and a returning festival,

    in safety, in an age untroubled by fear,

  74. and your radiant sons, lords of mankind,

    noble among mankind in root and branch,

  75. as long as a lover yearns for his homelands,

    far from home, and longs for its dwelling places.

Sol 6.1