Sol 5.6

  1. Why am I drawn from the scabbard, only to be sheathed again?

    Why am I not bared, when swords are bared?

  2. Why am I not drawn amid the sword-strokes, just once—

    O men!—when I am surely an Indian-tempered blade?

  3. Indeed, experience has shown that I am a keen-edged sword;

    they have acknowledged it—so why am I cast aside and never girded on?

  4. Why am I not adorned with my own ornament, when I am worthy of it,

    so a hero may be graced by me, and I may suffice him in battle?

  5. Jewels upon a sword are but a trust:

    they are not lost in its keeping, but are there to be found.

  6. Introduce me to Abu Musa, for I am

    shuttled between those you answer to and those who answer to you.

  7. I am the man whose station you know, and the son of one

    who among you was ever called upon for help, and praised.

  8. Do not sever, in me and in my father, a beneficent hand—

    a white hand never denied, nor ever to be denied.

  9. Favors are not severed in your keeping;

    with you they are armored and strengthened.

  10. Bestow upon your loyal servant a new favor like the old:

    it will join the old and make the benefaction complete.

  11. It will yield you two praises: one from you

    for the two of them, and one from them that never runs dry.

  12. No—leave us be, and look upon your handiwork

    in us: nothing like it should be allowed to vanish.

  13. Set watchful eyes of care from you over your crops;

    crops like yours must surely be tended.

  14. Do not heal the envier’s sickness with a cold rebuff

    that strikes a brother of yours, envied on your account.

  15. Why does your resolve, whenever it turns one glance

    toward my welfare, come unbound and then be bound?

  16. What are these pauses in what you intend,

    when yours are clear sight and the soundest resolve?

  17. Then reconsider me—may you find right guidance! For in my case

    your true judgment in affairs has never ceased to be unerring.

  18. Could I stray from rectitude now that gray has covered me,

    when I had found its path while my head was black?

  19. How could the noonday sun lead me astray,

    when it is my goal, and pitch-black night guides me?

  20. I am the man whose loyalty and purity you have known,

    and whose devotion to you dates from his beardless youth.

  21. Prosper through the merit of my trustworthiness and competence,

    and through my counsel—though I am happier still in you.

  22. Though I may not stand peerless in all those virtues,

    in affection, at least, I stand alone.

  23. Suppose me a man with no claim upon you to be honored—

    have I not one slip that may be sheathed in forgiveness?

Sol 5.6