Sol 6.1

  1. This letter of yours is like musk upon paper,

    or lapis lazuli I see sprinkled upon silver?

  2. And its letters, arranged within its lines,

    upon its paper, are the pupil within the eyes.

  3. Or pearls, once dyed with the finest musk,

    have settled in a platter of white silver?

  4. Or brilliant stars have risen, flowering in the night,

    moving in order, in harmonious beauty?

  5. But they took the sky's color for themselves,

    and repaid it for that with their dazzling whiteness.

  6. And this speech of yours is like pearls strung together,

    in utmost beauty, in the noblest arrangement.

  7. It possesses decisive speech, with wisdom within,

    with smoothness, not complication or unease.

  8. And through its eloquence it attained the enchantment of expression;

    human minds flowed, swept away toward its radiance.

  9. And from it flowed the varied arts of eloquence, from

    its most splendid styles, along the finest paths.

  10. And is this your eloquence, or wine passed around by

    a full moon of beauty, splendid in form and character?

  11. His countenance effaces the countenances of the beautiful,

    as the rising sun erases the reign of darkness.

  12. Eyes recoil from his beauty, weakened,

    and he has been placed under the protection of the Lord of humankind and daybreak.

  13. Like the choicest wine, it acts upon minds,

    like the spirit in the body and joys in the eyes.

  14. A garden of beauty; its virgin meanings are

    flowers of beauty, rising above the star of unfolding.

  15. Each is original, precious, and harmonious,

    sweet, well-knit, delightful, and concordant.

  16. And these are nightingales of expression, singing upon

    eloquence's lofty trees, watered with rhetorical artistry's water.

  17. A poem from the daughters of thought has appeared

    in beauty's robe, like the sun on the horizon.

  18. Slender of figure, coquettish, and smiling,

    she smiles, revealing radiant teeth and a gap between them.

  19. She adorned herself with beauty's jewels and robed herself,

    and so shamed the lady of earrings and hoops.

  20. Her charms flow openly throughout her body,

    as light flows through the body of the full moon and daybreak.

  21. No discerning person ever ponders her meanings

    without her calling him to lasting wakefulness and sleeplessness.

  22. And the mind became clothed in astonishment because of it,

    and the eye became clothed in dazzlement because of it.

  23. As though she were a spacious garden, laughing,

    her eyes content after the rain cloud's abundant shower.

  24. Eloquent, she took all eloquence, since

    she left it not a breath of life for all time.

  25. As though the upright alif letters within her

    were the slender forms of myrtle and basil boughs.

  26. As though the dots inscribed upon her

    were grains of musk on a sheet of paper.

  27. Oh, the beauty of her lines upon her paper,

    and between them, spaces of dazzling white!

  28. They have reminded me of Moses' sea, at

    the striking of the staff, when the sea became split by it.

  29. O man of honor, for that was his sign;

    it came to al-Fath from the Criterion, like daybreak.

  30. You sent her, a miracle of exquisite verse,

    for every keen, perceptive, skillful mind.

  31. So whoever seeks to produce a rival composition

    like her has neither the power nor the strength.

  32. Whoever claims, by mere assertion, to have rivaled her,

    they have condemned him as ignorant and foolish.

  33. And in this claim he was a Musaylima,

    the one called a liar and a fabricator.

  34. Her eloquence erased her rival's claim,

    and her hands clothed it in the garb of the annihilated.

  35. O sage of the age, O ocean of learning, O

    scholar of the sciences, beautiful in form and character!

  36. And O imam who has no equal,

    and has gone ahead, appearing beyond pursuit!

  37. Can you be overtaken in excellence and letters,

    when you have thereby left no goal for a rival racer?

  38. For no one but you, upon the racecourse, has won

    the reeds of victory and the prize that you have won.

  39. I apologize to you, O brother of kindness,

    and the door to my apology before you is not shut,

  40. pleading inability, for I have not caught up with you,

    and inability is a clear excuse, not to be erased.

  41. And though my reach is short, indeed your pardon for me

    is an ocean, long, broad, and deep.

  42. And the hope of my excuse is to be clothed in your acceptance,

    so it may be robed in it instead of its threadbare garb.

  43. Stay safe and remain, my master, a crown for our heads,

    lofty in rank, like the sun on the horizon,

  44. in the most bountiful life, serene and in good health,

    and long life, with contented eyes and pupils,

  45. with a good ending attained, and a prior blessing as well;

    may my Creator protect and guard you from every evil,

  46. as long as birds fly and their songsters sing,

    as long as the wind sets the branches playing with the leaves.

Sol 6.1