Translations and commentaries of texts

Summary

Buhtun in praise of Muhammad b. YGsuf al-Thaghn

1. Why do you hasten to blame [an] ardent love?

Did I bemoan anything other than campsite remnants and spring abodes?

2. They reproved but did not restrain my heart from love;

they called but found no listener in the afflicted one.

3. O abode which Time has altered and whose gathered

folk the Fates have separated from it,

4. Had I but tears still to adorn the agony of my love

I should leave them outcast in your twin courtyards;

5. Do not ask for my tears to be betrothed to you

for the pain of parting has left none in my eyes.

6. I remember a lady of languid glances whose heart

the mention of love's desires offends for she is modest and chaste.

7. At her sight the lover wilfully reveals his secret

and the steadfast one is left confounded;

8. Her resolute strength when she saw the dread

of parting to be gruesome, nearly restrained my tears.

9. To the firm resolves of Abū Sa‘īd al-Ṣāmitī

the vicissitudes of Time offer surrender;

10. A King who divides what his hands possess

while in him all implements of glory are united;

11. He outstrips Kings in nobility and grace

and for the star of munificence sets the time of rise.

12. Alert in his innermost being, he is to the enemies

a death that annihilates and a season of spring to the supplicants;

13. Generous of character, he defies the reprovers

through his noble deeds, but to munificence offers obedience;

14. Magnanimous of nature, he preserves noble acts

through the dew of his hands, but the long-possessed wealth he squanders;