Sol 6.1

  1. The birds of hope cried out upon the hills,

    weeping over fleeting bliss.

  2. With bewildered eyes and fluttering

    wings, driven from their shelters.

  3.    

    Whenever they were about to approach a branch,

    a gravel-laden wind drove them from the boughs.

  4.    

    Or when they flew low, seeking to quench their thirst,

    hands drove them away from the pools.

  5.    

    So all their lives they hover, seeing the

    fruit and water, far away yet near at hand.

  6.    

    And if the gardens were eternal, peace would come

    to their soul through alighting and solace.

  7.    

    Yet the boughs have ripe

    fruit, and the river brims with floodwater.

  8.    

    So are we in life: we seek

    serenity in it, but serenity's fruits are beyond reach.

  9. And we seek bliss in it, yet before

    our wishes stands a barrier of deprivation.

  10.    

    And we scatter seeds in the earth, while Time

    is stingy with the rain-pouring cloud.

  11.    

    And some crops grow tall, but their fruit has withered

    upon them, ungathered by any hands.

  12. And some water gushes forth, then dries above the

    earth, its drops untouched by any lips.

  13. If we looked on life with the eye of

    truth, it would turn away in rejection and abandonment.

  14. But we live in it with hopes

    that soothe the burning pangs of sorrow.

  15. And if expectations prove mistaken, oh, how many

    expectations relieve the sufferer's heart!

  16. So let us live by hopes: how often has the full moon

    rent the veil of a smoke-darkened cloud!

  17. And let us live by hopes: how often have the decrees

    of fate brought honor after long humiliation!

  18. So lift your voice a little in song,

    instead of lamenting, O birds of hope.

  19. The age smiled, lovely with hopes,

    so we lived blissfully in their luxuriant shade.

  20.    

    And we planted hope in every heart,

    so we plucked the first fruit of rapture.

  21.    

    And we traveled by night, while night was sleeplessness and toil,

    and beheld the face of the approaching morning.

  22.    

    The herald of sacrifice called us, and we answered,

    and we united in support of our homelands.

  23.    

    And we set forth on the path of truth, chanting,

    and singing the glories of this age.

  24. ،

    May God honor the era of him who honored

    art and raised the artist's standing,

  25.    

    and reward him for the goodness offered by his

    two hands, in bounty and appreciation.

  26. He brought the company together around him and went on

    spreading from his justice the shades of safety.

  27. Then his right hand was extended, and he clothed

    art in majesty and specially favored the garden of eloquence.

  28. And he chose a flock from poetry's nightingales,

    singing to one another in the festival's grove.

  29.    

    O cousins, O possessors of abundant

    learning, you have led the way in virtue and kindness.

  30.    

    Longing to meet you stirred me, so I sent

    my imagination into the pool of feeling.

  31. ،

    And I imagined the kindness I would be shown

    and the many kinds of tenderness I would encounter.

  32.    

    ،

    Then I confided in you through my poetry from

    afar, placing within it my heart's pure essence.

  33.    

    And God ordained that I should see you and slake

    my eyes' thirst with the splendor of these dwellings.

  34.    

    And behold, the house is my home, and its

    people are my peers and the choicest of brothers.

  35.    

    And behold, I, who look out upon the

    Nile, am dwelling on the hills of al-Zabadani.

Sol 6.1