1. I answer your call, O fellow gathering
Of nobles peerless in merit and deed

2. You have honored me by your invitation
And blessed presence to hear my recital

3. And by your grace in concealing my shortcomings
You have gladdened me beyond any gladdening

4. Such are traits of friendliness from you
Of harmony and support untold

5. None but you extends such warmth
Whether present or traveled afar

6. Increasing the passion I already possess
To its utmost bounds in steady ascent

7. It is the crown jewel of beloved homelands
Is there comfort sweeter for one pulled to roam?

8. Whoever seeks spirit and wellness
Will find his languor cured in this balm

9. In all the realms that have been extolled
As curative to body and bold

10. Be it the sweet chill of its waters
When summer's blaze burns hot aflame

11. Or its sunshine streaming rays
That heal and give livers acclaim

12. Or its heady drunken splendor that made
Ascetics forget whatever ascetic ways

13. Or its river whose meanderings run
To rhythms of sense and significance yet unknown

14. With colors ever shifting by degrees
As the angles alternate and intercede

15. Its rippling thrill in the ear descends
To alight to the sound of tumbling rapids

16. And the soaring of souls who sense in it
What unfeeling corpses cannot permit

17. What grove rivals such graceful cover
Had it not suffered a transgressor's harm?

18. I mourn the felled giants that reached
With towering ambition beyond what pickaxes heed

19. Not one prominent trunk remains intact
Save the sharp relentless bite of blades

20. By God, I shall never cease commemorating
How they stood aligned in formations told

21. And how they were felled to meet their end
Where aim was directed from down the valley's bend

22. And how in their state arrangements were made
Where beauties embraced in contrasts shown

23. No sooner seen, their leaves in legions spread
To flutter above their posted steads

24. Only to return by dawn's first rays
As I gulp their last sweetness in desperate thirst

25. Destruction had its way though they deserved
A costlier ransom no aid could afford

26. But your resolve came before it was too late
The noblest restoration by ancestors made

27. And so I found solace and news to delight
A hope-giving morn after long darkened night

28. We recoil from the sins of those passed
To bliss in an age so nobly cast

29. Let memories cease their woeful song
And the warbler's lone tune pass along

30. Let the air ring out with rhythms that run
To melodies plucking on towering rods

31. Let's rejoice in our rising fortunes ahead
And spend days that pass as holy days led

32. I recall Zahle once a carefree lad
Playing 'mongst playmates less wise than mad

33. A student not apt to be tutored or led
With hunger my crown and no lesson read

34. I'd turn in at dusk and wake at dawn
To a master who saw me lost to be shorn

35. Warnings loomed as dangers stalked ahead
That my ruin inevitably lied

36. Yet by some miracle I was spared
As the seal gave way to leaks no more flared

37. And relief came to fund my last days
From my Guardian to brim her aid

38. My friends from youth, a curious thing
How things turned out from that dawning

39. Could this mind have been foreseen
From our ignorance back then?

40. Who'd have thought back in those spaces
Such wit from us babes with babies' faces ?

41. The little ones then have now grown tall
With children advanced and fathers withal

42. Their jet black hair has grey strands inset
As they walk sure-stepped without any fret

43. Such is way of life and nothing withstands
Its currents - ask the eras and lands

44. But when it comes time to stand for cause
We give our lives as ransoms without pause

45. And Zahle's standing shall ever endure
Despite the spite of those emerald with hatred unsure

46. Zahle's leaders brook no equivalent vying
In all the world's domains defying

47. Zahle's bested by no regional pair
In every age and era

48. Its literati are seated on high
In hearts of all those who speak truth without lie

49. Its creators supreme though never endowed
With patronage plentiful proud

50. In every knowledge a star lion emerges
And every art has its fount welling surges

51. The ethic of glory and grit to avail
Not cowering misery and cursing tale

52. In each far reach and distant place displayed
Their traces reveal and trails they made

53. Their greatest feat of cooperation swayed
Had they united 'neath one standard raised

54. Shall I ever see such reform again
Instead of the chaos hatred and envy sustain?

55. The hope leaders hold and despots decry
As from their foxholes they question "why?"

56. Hail to the beautiful lodge that resides
In a manor where each noble soul abides

57. A house made nobler by every gentleman hosted
Of grace and generosity the utmost

58. In hardship's sweep the sturdiest pillars
For their lands - firm anchors that never waver

59. They inherit glory built to endure
From actions lit with motivations pure

60. Assembly of both countries' very best displayed
Like a necklace of luminaries inlaid

61. Your gracious gesture has granted me
Great honor by which my name shall never flee

62. So you have bestowed and earned in kind
Blessings immeasurable of any kind

63. By hearts' signs when together descried
Bonds evidentiary of love tied

64. O attendees, your brother here imposed
Since early rising such boons to declare

65. For this is your custom, people and nation alike
To habitually render favors forthright