Sol 5.6

  1. You have risen to the lofty star’s own station,

    and won all that your soul’s excellence made it aspire to.

  2. Yet never grow proud over all of that,

    for, by God, you have not attained the station you deserve.

  3. I could excuse you had you attained a rank beyond your worth,

    in office—or attained one equal to you.

  4. But there is no excuse if you attain one beneath you

    and vaunt this lesser prize, whose reproach is slight.

  5. Can the like of what you have attained loom great in worth

    before your great soul, which has no peer?

  6. Nor is there excuse for a fortune whose branch begrudges

    us what it bears once its root has grown strong.

  7. We have known as yours a hand magnificent in giving;

    why then, when God increased you, did its giving diminish?

  8. And it has grown scant only toward your servant, and him alone,

    though it has made the earth’s rough and level ground flourish.

  9. You shone for all the earth’s people except me, and darkness fell

    upon my soul thereby; its dwelling became night’s sworn companion.

  10. And upon others it poured, lavish with its gentle rain—

    your sky—until its downpour drowned the people.

  11. For you, by my life, are its peer in loftiness,

    its home in glory, and in beauty its likeness.

  12. So give as freely as a cloud of mercy gives,

    all-enfolding, its downpour embracing every creature.

  13. Before you there passed a people whose souls obeyed

    their own caprice; their ignorance led them into evil.

  14. They were the earth’s locusts, devouring its crops;

    you are its bees, pouring honey out for humankind.

  15. Rather, among all clans the highest exemplar is yours:

    from ancient days, Glory’s youth and elder alike have come from you.

Sol 5.6