Sol 5.6

  1. None of your daughters, O House of Guidance, has appeared

    On earth except as beacons of yours for minds.

  2. The world's institutes of learning are their institutes,

    And East and West are two pupils alike.

  3. Indeed, the Jesuit has the greatest right to say: “I—

    All humankind is my family, and the boundless universe my homelands.”

  4. You see him in the West a Westerner, passionately enamored of it;

    And, ardently devoted, in Japan he is Japanese.

  5. He built his schools across East and West, so that no

    Region remained beyond that builder's reach.

  6. Schools through which seekers of knowledge roamed,

    Despite the diversity of their lineages and faiths:

  7. Japhethite, Semite, and others;

    Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian.

  8. They became brothers together, with no opening among them

    For one who hunts discord between Gospel and Qur'an.

  9. No preacher summoned them to aught but piety,

    Nor did any diverter turn them toward aught but guidance.

  10. Until, when they had drunk their fill at their watering place, they departed

    From it as emissaries of reform and benevolence.

  11. Wherever you turn, you find them standing eminent upon

    The summits of excellence, masters of counsel and consequence.

  12. Here are their glories in Egypt, openly proclaiming

    The merit of those who taught them—in the finest proclamation.

  13. Thus the prince has a tale about his teacher,

    And the minister and judge each have a tale:

  14. An eloquent testimony to the Jesuits,

    Celebrated in Egypt by every council.

  15. Nor did Egypt alone bear it; indeed, it rang out

    Through lands both distant and near.

  16. That testimony shall not perish: its letters are

    Engraved above this transient world.

  17. Hail the Jesuit wherever his rising star appears:

    You hail an omen of success and flourishing—

  18. A tireless traveler, worn thin by toil, sowing for you what

    You reap as knowledge, O reaper.

  19. His path is renunciation; earthly pleasures he disavows,

    Striving toward delight in the world to come.

  20. Clad in armor, with patience as his shield, wholly withdrawn

    Into monastic solitude, far from family and brothers.

  21. A firmly rooted realm has arisen for him upon the earth,

    With knowledge and benevolence as its two pillars.

  22. In heaven it has one banner, and in the heart of

    The dusty earth another—and in the two realms, two armies.

  23. The calamities of time recoil from it, abashed,

    As though they had struck against Lebanon's mountains.

  24. O neighbor of al-Azhar, unveil your smiling lips: already

    They have smiled upon you with love and gratitude.

  25. Welcome the auspicious jubilee, blessed by

    Two blessed ones, one earthly and one spiritual.

  26. And chant Isma'il's praise, for he has bestowed upon you

    The finest favor from the finest helper.

  27. But for his benefactions, your pure fountain would never have flowed,

    Nor would it have tasted sweet in Egypt to a thirsty soul;

  28. Nor would a lily have been planted in the Nile Valley,

    Nor would a breath of basil have wafted from it.

  29. So repeat his praise, O House, fashioning

    With it necklaces of ruby and pure gold.

  30. And fear not: Isma'il's swords were never veiled

    From the targets they sought by scabbards.

  31. Though his gaze may leave Egypt in a moment's slumber,

    He watches over her with a heart that never sleeps.

  32. His heart is the delight of the East's eye—may no eyes ever open

    That refuse to ransom him with a human life.

  33. The Nile flowed only beneath his banner,

    From al-Arish to the reservoir of Aswan.

  34. It flows while its protected Farouk chants to it:

    “Your valley is my valley, and Sudan is my Sudan.”

  35. Every mountain pass where you paused falls short of it—

    Except Abu al-Tayyib's pass at Bawwan:

  36. As though pearls lay stored within its soil,

    And the great trees drew them forth upon their branches.

  37. Graceful maidens pass morning and evening through its bowers,

    Swaying beneath the shade of myrtle and moringa.

  38. Egypt, the Quiver, is among your Lord's gardens; never

    Has Ridwan's gaze beheld one lovelier.

  39. But for her institutions in the East, there would have vanished

    Landmarks inherited from Qahtan.

  40. Arabic—the language of Ḍād—would have collapsed, its institutes razed,

    And Ghassan's daughter gone westward with her brother.

  41. O Egypt, glory enough that the Arabs found

    No fortress for Arabic but you—a fortress never humbled;

  42. And that apostles of learning settled within you

    For fifty years, with neither censurer nor detractor.

  43. Classical Arabic shone beneath their protection

    As though dwelling in the environs of Najran,

  44. Under a covenant from which its seeker encounters

    Nothing but love of Egypt, bound fast to faith.

  45. So clasp his people's hands, O Egypt, and sing:

    “The people are my people, and their helpers are mine.”

  46. Hasten early to the jubilee gathering, scattering

    April flowers upon its dawning.

  47. For the Jesuit is one of your shields, never

    Growing weak, and a doer of good who never changes.

  48. Yesterday I stood in his house, reciting to it

    My verse and extolling the tender Nile Valley.

  49. A fragrant greeting has come to you, O House, from Lebanon—

    A cedar-song issuing from a love-struck heart.

Sol 5.6