Sol 5.6

  1. Art is a garden through which its harvesters pass,

    and thieves as well, in groups and one by one.

  2. The man most entitled to it throughout the ages is an innovator

    who has added a brook to it, or added sweet basil.

  3. Do not ask God for an art at every moment;

    ask Him, at intervals in time, for an artist.

  4. O peerless master of art in its choicest strains,

    now the hour of rightful praise has come.

  5. Many a night the wine entertained us, then improvised

    upon your fingertips melodies for the evening revelers.

  6. That little plaything of wood and string—

    but for your fingertips, it would have gained no distinction.

  7. It sensed tenderness in your breast and nestled

    beside your ear, seeking inspiration from you as from a spirit of genius.

  8. As though it were a bird’s nest whose brood had stirred,

    from every side streaming forth in plaintive strains.

  9. You clasped it, and your two palms charged each other with its care,

    as one clasps a newborn girl, with tenderness and kindness.

  10. You dictate to it that which is inspired to you,

    as though David and the reed-pipe had never parted.

  11. You stirred it; spirit came to it, and it burst forth,

    weeping and laughing through strings and lutes.

  12. How sweet it is when you urge it onward with a voice

    like the bee’s proboscis, distilling essences and colors—

  13. Egyptian in accent, Wahhābian in style, sweetening

    song and lament, refrain and tender yearning.

  14. You reminded a people exiled beyond the sea

    of familiar haunts, ardent longings, and homelands.

  15. You sang them cradle songs, and they sought

    Lebanon where bow and strings meet.

  16. Had you sung out with Beethoven, hearts would not have turned

    to you, though you might have found ears.

  17. You gave them to drink of a choice wine that had so often entered

    their cradle as grapes and milk—

  18. an art of which the East had for a time been bereft,

    though it had occupied the Abbasids for ages.

Sol 5.6