Sol 5.6

  1. What ails Egypt, now that her affliction has cleared away,

    and the smiling mouth of gladness has opened to reveal her Abbas?

  2. She tells of his generosity, just as

    her Nilometer tells of the Nile’s rise.

  3. What ails her, now that she has greeted hopes that have arrived

    at hope’s door after her bitter despair?

  4. What ails her, now that the grandson governs her

    and builds ever higher to raise her foundations—

  5. a lion cub who became a lion when he ruled, like his forebear?

    Would gazelles forsake the company of their lair?

  6. If he journeys toward the pilgrimage, his wild beasts follow behind him;

    and if he returns, Egypt returns to her familiar joy.

  7. Her tongue rings out with gratitude and praise,

    and gratitude for blessings is her noblest attire.

  8. No wonder Egypt submitted to him:

    her people’s love gave him a mettlesome steed.

  9. A venture drawing on the treasuries of his wealth has won

    the subjects’ hearts—and he stands among her guardians:

  10. Ṣadrī, peerless in his age for devotion,

    healing the people’s hearts of their misgivings.

  11. When he ascended the heights, he felt compassion for her plight,

    and through him the wine in her cup grew pure and pleasing.

  12. Glad tidings to the people, now that her good fortune has come fully to her,

    amid her utter wakefulness and banishment of sleep.

  13. The day of his deliverance—her Sha‘ban—became

    the date when her dissemblers and her strife were expelled.

  14. Egypt bestowed him and thereby attained eminence,

    manifest in him, for he was the fruit of her planting.

  15. He is one of her sons, constant in his filial devotion to her;

    at his accession, no need to tell him, “Console her.”

  16. With his earnestness he revives his grandfather’s glories

    and, with divine support, strengthens the power of her might.

  17. In brilliance, his intelligence has no rival;

    if you wish, compare him with her Quss and her Iyas.

  18. Of the lofty Muhammad Ali dynasty, he is its great tree,

    and his fingertips embody its meaning—in marvelous wordplay.

  19. And Arabic eloquence—he is its master;

    and in ingenuity, his utmost reach is its beacon.

  20. His creed is sound, free of anything disgraceful,

    rejecting the soul’s vaulting ambition even in its whispers.

  21. He is Egypt’s body and the unique jewel of her spirit;

    marvel at one man who gathers all her senses.

  22. Egypt flourishes through him like the ripe fruit of a garden,

    glorying in a meadow of its anemones or myrtle.

  23. He showers petitioners with wealth both newly won and inherited,

    as warriors shoot arrows from their bows.

  24. If she makes her love an endowment dedicated to him,

    then all goodness lies in that endowment.

  25. The day of accession was a day of delight;

    nations of every race rejoiced in him.

  26. The law of Islam gained still greater glory

    and rose in honor after its traces had faded.

  27. They entrusted him with the reign, and her courage grew strong;

    she felt secure, having tightened the bonds of her fellowship.

  28. What can my praise add, when he is a rising full moon

    climbing from Gemini to the very crown of its head?

  29. And when manly virtue met him in its primal essence,

    the conclusion came true, exactly matching the form of its syllogism.

  30. He will rise in glory to the utmost reach of his course,

    if you weigh the matter deeply in every way.

  31. No mere profusion was the lofty aim of my ode;

    rather, the verses’ adornment lies in forging their wordplay.

  32. Acceptance alone suffices me as the reward for my ode;

    I hope acceptance wafts fragrantly from its breaths.

  33. She is the daughter of this thought, an Abbasian poem;

    the light of the caliphate gleams upon her pages.

Sol 5.6