Sol 5.6

  1. You created beauty as a sign for us,

    Around which hearts and eyes revolve.

  2. And throughout creation You fashioned what eyes may behold,

    And what remains a hidden secret.

  3. !

    And You adorned it—oh, what beauty!

    What majesty, and what yearning!

  4. Breasts grow reverent in its light,

    While their longings and sorrows throb.

  5. Here is the sky with all its horizons,

    Where constellations adorn themselves for those who gaze.

  6. How many a gaze returns from it exhausted,

    In awe, while they remain apprehensive.

  7. And beyond imagination’s vault lies an unseen realm,

    Inaccessible, beneath a securely guarded roof.

  8. Roam wherever you wish: its signs

    Are the majesty of boundless space and the majesty of the ages.

  9. And here is the earth—how many gardens

    From amid whose fruits springs gush forth;

  10. And meadows from which morning breathes,

    Fragrant with roses and jasmine;

  11. And a bird, as though the flutter of its wings

    Were the rustle of dawn and the whisper of branches.

  12. It glorifies God in a procession

    Majestic—a throng of reverent worshippers.

  13. And how many mountains whose peaks cleave

    The vault of heaven, beside plains that gently yield.

  14. And how many seas in which God has hidden

    Mysteries, and upon which He launched the ships;

  15. ..

    And a river whose waves pour forth,

    Watering life and enriching generations.

  16. God adorns it however He wills

    And grants it the creative genius of the arts.

  17. From its adornment You created, within this life,

    That You might test us concerning love and certainty,

  18. And test the secrets hidden in our breasts,

    The hearts’ private counsels and the eyelids’ intimations.

  19. How often an adornment has kindled temptation,

    Blazing into lust or wantonness;

  20. And how often an adornment has had beauty flutter within it,

    Purifying our longings and yearning.

  21. The adornment of this worldly life is but plumage;

    Its splendor is wealth and the longing for sons.

  22. People transform it through their striving

    Into the gratitude of piety or the denial born of temptation.

  23. How many an ignorant man has strayed in his delusion,

    Deeming beauty the passion of transgressors—

  24. Forbidden dalliance driven by lust,

    Leaping among beautiful and wide-eyed women.

  25. The flutter of beauty is the gift of what is lawful,

    The truth of fidelity and a trustworthy covenant.

  26. And loveliest among its signs is this:

    That it should be truth and purity—

  27. A light flooding the whole of existence,

    Sweeping away darkness and banishing suspicions;

  28. And freedom that has released souls

    To proceed in the procession of worshippers.

  29. Beauty will remain a sign for us:

    In its truth, those who know behold God.

  30. And our love will remain the very love of the truthful,

    For love is nothing but the passion of the truthful.

  31. And love is nothing but beauty made pure:

    Pure in deeds, loyal, faithful, and devout.

  32. Whoever knows love for God

    Is taught by love to forsake wantonness.

  33. For in every quarter there is a sign

    Of beauty made manifest—and a certain truth.

  34. It points to the truth that You are God,

    For He is Lord of all creation and all worlds.

  35. None beholds Him except a believer,

    And none perceives it except the God-fearing.

  36. You are beautiful, and You love beauty;

    So You said to us: “O My servants, be mindful of Me.”

Sol 5.6