English
In Praise of Ali, Commander of the Faithful
If the morning breeze loosens one knot from my beloved's hair, my envy of that breeze ties a thousand knots in my heart.
As surely as you wring the life from my heart and soul, so the tip of your hair tightens its knots.
A thousand threads of life have already turned to knot after knot; do not allow more knots in that twisting hair.
When the thread of my life grew too weak to hold a knot of its own, a thousand knots wound themselves into the strands of your hair.
No effort of fingernails could undo the knot in the thread of my life, for the beloved is delicate and the knot is firm.
She loosened the knot of her brow and closed the road to complaint; her untying left me tangled in a knot.
The frown on your brow is lovely, O sweet-smiling one; do not come near with your lips, and keep that knot in your brow.
Because it bears a likeness to the tip of your hair, a knot would gladly fall in my heart and count it an honor.
You tie a knot in your brow; look at the jealousy of it, that a mere frown above the eye should win such prestige.
With a single passing breeze a knot slipped from your hair; no knot stays bound when you are around.
You parted your lips in a smile in the garden, and out of longing the laughing rose drew tight like a bud upon the bough.
I will never undo the knot from the thread of my life, for it remains a keepsake left by your hair.
When in autumn you step out to wander the meadow, the heart of spring knots with envy of the bud.
It was not drops of blood that flowed from my heart to my eyes; from the watering of my eyes the knots grew moist.
I was already weary of a single knot in my heart, the one that tangled my affairs like the beloved's hair.
Now what can I do? From grief for you, in my narrow chest, where one heart was, a hundred thousand knots have fallen.
How could the thread of my life not be cut short, when it has taken countless knots from your hair?
Why has the thread of my life, which needed nothing but grief for you, ended up knotted like a twisting strand?
Your curling hair, all in knots, looks as though the very axis of the world had jammed into a knot.
It is the noose of a hunting lion, in whose curve the thread of life is knotted within the body of its prey.
Ali of high rank, whose nail of justice has cut every knot from the spiteful heart of the age.
So thoroughly did his untying leave no tangle that in his reign even a lock of hair will not meet a knot.
In the era of his just hand, what recourse is left, unless a knot should fall in the heart of the king's enemy?
In the season when his even temper keeps the promise of loyalty, no knot of waiting remains in the king's path.
My heart's desire has tasted the pleasure of his opening; a thousand thanks that the knot has served me well.
From fear of him none can breathe a word of oppression, for the breath of the quarrelsome man knots in his chest.
So widespread has the joy of his untying grown that a knot now sits unbearable in the lovers' hearts.
The work of reason has fallen into such a tangle that the strand of hope's hair holds not a single knot.
From the watering of the springtime of his good fortune, the knot grew so moist with the bounty of freshness,
that it makes the knot in the strands of the beautiful ones' hair like a string of pearls strung with gems.
By its very nature a knot has fallen so kindly that a knot is now a balm upon my wounded heart.
By his justice, from the famine of capture, the snare itself has become a knot in the heart of worry.
So much does the breeze of his reign bring blossoming that if the knot does not break into a smile, what use is it?
Why should the nail need force to undo it, when the knot opens of its own will into a smile?
From the freshness of his sweet reign, the knot cannot hold, like a drop from too much moisture finding no rest in the vein of life.
Do not be amazed if, by the grace of his untying, the knot in a wounded heart should open by itself like a bud.
So hidden is the knot now that I cannot tell how a knot became visible in his enemy's heart.
How often, out of envy, he ties the thread of his foe's life into a knotted row, like the beads of a rosary.
His enemy cannot part willingly: a knot has fallen of necessity in his heart.
In the grip of sorrow, the vein of his enemy's life is a snare that knots itself night and day out of jealousy.
When he sets out to war with the tongue of his wrath, the flame is forever knotted by his sparks.
From his generous hand things have grown so tight, I fear a knot will form bubble-like in the sea.
These are not pearls; from envy of his countless palmfuls, countless knots have fallen in the heart of the sea.
These are not stars; envy of his loftiness has cast a thousand knots in the heart of the restless sky.
These are not jewels; the malice of the quarrelsome foe has tied a knot in the soul of his fearless sword.
Loose your aim in wrath, for the longing in the enemy's breast has knotted in the heart of the gleaming arrowhead.
My lord, far from your door I am slain, with a thousand longings knotted in my restless soul.
The dust of your street is kohl in my eyes; like a pupil, my hope has knotted in that dust.
The hope of blistering my feet on the road to circle your door has knotted like a blister in my wounded heart.
Show such favor that by good fortune I may, on the thorny road to your door, undo a thousand knots from my blistered heart.
I have no task but the resolve to circle your door; from enmity, the heavens have thrown a knot in my affairs.
As long as union does its trade through opening, as long as the orbit keeps its knot through binding,
may the bountiful heart's opening grant you union's fulfillment, and may it never again meet the knot of this longing.