1. May the waterspouts of calamity pour down

    upon the abode of Molla Çelebi,

  2. from a cloudbank flashing with lightning,

    raining down a deluge of disasters:

  3. a stubborn, unjust old man,

    dull by nature, a fool.

  4. No—may there never pass beyond his ruins

    the clamorous clouds of death,

  5. the like of which once destroyed

    the people of ʿĀd as ages rolled by,

  6. sent by the barren wind

    from the heaven of wrath;

  7. clouds pouring, streaming,

    sweeping all away with their trailing skirts.

  8. Thunderbolts follow them,

    fraught with dire afflictions;

  9. crashing thunderclaps head toward them,

    deafening even a giant’s ears;

  10. in their wake come lightning flashes,

    hurling sparks of flame;

  11. calamities follow after,

    bearing causes of lasting pain,

  12. one behind another, with a crushing blow

    that delivers him to ruin.

  13. And hard upon their assault, let them be seconded

    by horsemen wielding keen-thrusting spears:

  14. whenever a raid summons them,

    they gallop to it at full trot,

  15. like a raging wind, with no slowing,

    driven at the pace of lean, long steeds—

  16. the lean horses of death,

    saddled and swift as meteors,

  17. chestnut and red,

    black and gray,

  18. blue-gray and piebald,

    white-faced and sorrel.

  19. They carry every valiant warrior,

    a mighty lion of the lair,

  20. his face veiled behind iron—

    —behind plates of armor,

  21. girded with gleaming sword-blades,

    drawn forth to despoil the foe,

  22. bearing the brown shafts of broad—

    —bladed lances above his shoulder.

  23. Their armor—what armor it is!—

    is the handiwork of David the prophet,

  24. its rings doubly interwoven,

    like the eyes of the pallid.

  25. White helmets sit upon their heads,

    with the flashing gleam of stars.

  26. By them all things perish wherever they ride,

    raiding far beneath the stars.

  27. This is the force that, if it vied

    with Death’s own host, would prevail;

  28. or if it fought the army of Fate—

    —it would never recoil in fear;

  29. or if it struck Mount Raḍwā,

    it would become a fallen heap, its flank crumbling.

  30. With Gog’s barrier it has

    a kinship of blood.

  31. The raid summoned them, then wheeled away

    while night let down its tent ropes.

  32. They came on, clamorous,

    rending the hide of pitch-black darkness,

  33. and fell upon his dwellings at dawn

    with the gray-white morning,

  34. with a cry that uprooted them

    as palm trunks are torn out by the roots.

  35. They would turn their highest part

    into their lowest, until they appeared

  36. to the eye a level, featureless plain,

    or like a vast and trackless waste,

  37. their roofs collapsed

    over a ruined courtyard.

  38. And in their grounds they would leave

    amid its skulls and ruins

  39. nothing but a tall, upright specter

    of propped-up timbers,

  40. departing from its shade

    toward one split into three branches—

  41. no cooling shade, nor

    any shelter there from flame.

  42. Damn him for a deceiver,

    never recoiling from his guile!

  43. For it is he who turns me away,

    in his ignorance, from what I seek.

  44. Whenever I asked him

    for a school, he sorely tormented me.

  45. In his stupidity he imagines

    I sought the phoenix of the West.

  46. He did not know that I am

    a servant of the man of lofty rank:

  47. Saʿd, the felicity of humankind, a sage

    whose judgments are like meteors;

  48. the speaker of the decisive word when

    the riders’ backs press together;

  49. the lancer of his rival whenever

    the backs of Arab steeds clash;

  50. a lord whose sanctuary is sacred,

    a haven for those who seek;

  51. hearts incline toward him,

    both non-Arab and Arab.

Sol 6.1