Sol 5.6

  1. Noble deeds are awaited from you;

    and yours is the gratitude of humankind.

  2. Khurshid—O sun of the heights,

    O our lofty, radiant moon!

  3. Since you appeared, O light of guidance,

    upon our horizon, sight has been dazzled.

  4. Virtue shines amid the darkness,

    and gratitude rings out before the dawn.

  5. In you I glory above

    all humankind and all who boast.

  6. Yours is a favor towering beyond

    my frailty, which cannot render thanks.

  7. Your kindness has never ceased to engulf me,

    drawn from the sea of your forbearance when it swelled.

  8. So I bore its surging depths across

    the ocean deeps, and knew no peril,

  9. until, through his learning, I reached

    a land that bewilders the gaze.

  10. The city’s wall, my lord—

    is gold, and its soil is pearls.

  11. Whichever way you turn, you see there

    a spring of silver bursting forth.

  12. Yet I was preoccupied by it,

    away from the radiant wellspring of fellowship.

  13. Even the Nile in all its flood

    could not quench the sparks within me.

  14. But near you, my lord,

    is a Nile by which the heart’s desire is won.

  15. Muqattam constrains me,

    keeping thought from roaming across it;

  16. but on Lebanon’s slopes, delight

    grows pure as the gaze is given rein.

  17. The iron rails carry me flying

    across the wilderness, with nowhere to rest;

  18. and my heart flies home to the homeland

    in less than the blink of an eye.

  19. My solace is always remembering you,

    and speaking of your grace is my evening converse.

Sol 5.6