Sol 5.6

  1. Ours is the sweetest draught, drawn from the purest spring,

    when we draw near to providential care and grace.

  2. We pass the night while agonizing longing tugs us onward,

    striving for a sip of the honeyed sweetness of those dusky lips.

  3. For nothing but sipping it again and again will quench thirst,

    nor is the ardent lover’s burning thirst healed of its torment.

  4. A grove-dove passed the night sharing my consuming passion,

    while I, in my ardor, made her drink it undiluted.

  5. An Iraqi dove yearned for a distant gray-plumed mate,

    stirring my passion whenever she mournfully called to her beloved.

  6. Her warbling alarms the heart and fills me with longing,

    and a flash of lightning doubles my anguish.

  7. A heart-soothing little breeze heals my burning thirst,

    bringing at dawn the fragrance of the Arab folk of the sanctuary.

  8. Through it I caught a perfume that refreshed my soul,

    redolent of one whose glories have baffled description.

  9. He is the consummate scholar, and the pen that

    rose in eminence, towering above every peer:

  10. Abu al-Fadl Muhammad, beacon of the sciences—

    how noble a scholar, how mighty a refuge!

  11. He transmitted and mastered every work composed in learning;

    were one appraised, we would not count a thousand equal to it.

  12. O garden whose fragrance rivals the breeze,

    though we have not let our gaze roam amid its tangled groves;

  13. and O luminary, whose rays of excellence spread abroad—

    from afar we honor in him what was plainly revealed.

  14. Through hearing alone, bonds of connection have come to us;

    through them trunks have grown, and through them we hope for favor.

  15. And we offer greetings to al-Sharā—may they endure;

    despite the distance, we needed no unveiling to recognize them.

  16. We beseech you to authorize us and graciously bestow your favor

    through what you transmit, for it is our cherished desire and means of nearness—

  17. an unrestricted authorization one might take for amulets,

    to wear as a necklace and don as an earring.

  18. And we hope that, in making it general, you will include within it

    my two full brothers and my son, for it is the amplest bordered robe.

  19. May the Merciful reward you for it with His finest recompense,

    and be your ally in every eventuality.

  20. And pardon what I have penned—the apology of one who falls short;

    but for you, it would have gained neither poetic beauty nor ordered form.

  21. May you endure as the rain endures, pouring abundantly,

    reviving the sanctuary’s meadow whenever it withers.

Sol 5.6