Sol 6

  1. Do not watch the clouds for lightning;

    if the clouds are distant, let them go far away.

  2. Seek instead the horizon of Banū Ḥam—

    —mād, the most generous of horizons,

  3. watching among them for flashes

    from a noble man fashioned openhanded:

  4. skilled in glory, adept,

    recklessly lavish with wealth.

  5. He buys praise, however dear its price,

    and makes the most profitable bargain.

  6. Watch the flashes of the fairest—

    fairest in character and form:

  7. a lord of the house of Ḥam—

    —mād, tended and given drink.

  8. His kindness and goodness spread wide

    when time was harsh and unfilial.

  9. May God set right and exalt

    the house of Ḥammād, and preserve it;

  10. may He grant them growth

    that utterly destroys their enviers.

  11. May God put out eyes

    that stare at them, green and blue:

  12. the eyes of people who have become

    black and mottled in their faith.

  13. Their trembling hearts took flight;

    those hearts fluttered wildly.

  14. They envied souls more discerning, purer,

    and more devout than their own.

  15. How vast, by my life,

    the distance between one who falls and one who rises!

  16. One who goes upward is unlike

    one who sinks into the depths.

  17. The house of Ḥammād are people

    noble in branch and root.

  18. They hold honor inviolable

    and let their wealth go freely.

  19. When the finish lines are drawn,

    they lead the race for glory.

  20. O son of a house of rule and wis—

    —dom and blessing, truly;

  21. O son of one who became the line between

    truth and falsehood:

  22. God bears witness to an oath

    that could wrench mountains from their places:

  23. Ismāʿīl truly follows

    the guidance of Ismāʿīl.

  24. Many a judgment of his has be—

    —come consonant with God's judgment.

  25. He bridled injustice until he bloodied

    its palate and its cheek.

  26. O ʿAlī, who bears the name

    of ʿAlī, live protected!

  27. How many deeds of yours have become

    freedom for slaves of mere subsistence!

  28. Yet you did not leave it there until

    your bounty became a bond on free people's necks.

  29. They do not suffer through you by your intent;

    it is through your own affliction that they suffer.

  30. Rather, you have a favor that has be—

    —come a collar around their necks.

  31. How many of your peers in wea—

    —lth failed when they tried to hold it back!

  32. You set out to mend a bone,

    and ended up gnawing into a vein.

  33. The young man with the broader heart

    surpasses the one with the broader frame.

  34. O son of Ismāʿīl, triumphantly

    you prevailed over the most eloquent speaker.

  35. Your glad tidings are lightning enough for us,

    and the dew of your hands is pouring rain.

  36. How splendid! What a cloud—

    how splendid its rain and lightning!

  37. House of Ḥammād, you have become

    the surest shots and the most fortunate.

  38. May God bless the heir to the

    covenant for what he received from you.

  39. For he received sincere counsel

    from you, with no deceit mixed in.

  40. You set right the ea—

    —st, though it had been thrown into turmoil.

  41. The earth was almost split open

    by blood and drenched with it.

  42. You strove to set the

    matter right, a striving that closed a breach.

  43. And in it you mended a tear

    in kingship and the state.

  44. You charmed the ser—

    —pent of sovereignty, as serpents are charmed.

  45. You closed one rupture in it

    and opened what had been sealed.

  46. You dispelled darkness

    that left people no dawn.

  47. May you never lack, in a

    difficult matter, the power to bind and unbind.

  48. Such is the work of people

    who join resolve with gentleness.

  49. Other hands wrote cramped lines in glory;

    you wrote there with a sweeping hand.

  50. I would never choose, amid hard—

    —ships, to see you suffer hardship.

  51. I do not see my praise of any glory

    but that glory as anything but contrived.

  52. You are rulers and bea—

    —cons, and highest in rank.

  53. Through you, whoever seeks a living

    begins to find provision.

  54. If the upright were deprived of you,

    their drinking water would turn muddy.

  55. Or if the wicked were free of you,

    they would fill the horizons with vice.

  56. So may you remain for the good

    that, through you, surely endures.

  57. You split heads and under—

    —standings wide open with your judgments.

  58. You give people room to brea—

    —the, while choking those who do wrong.

  59. No one with any discernment

    thinks ill of you.

  60. Do not count the skill of your prai—

    —ser, though he excels in skill.

  61. He merely found pearls

    in seas and selected the finest.

  62. From among you, the prai—

    —ser has adorned you in great and small things.

  63. He found the course smooth

    and ran without fear.

  64. Had he gone beyond you, he would have struggled

    to find his way, or suffered.

Sol 6