Sol 6

  1. The magic is in you, and in you lie some of its causes.

    The ease of one proud of his brilliant youth.

  2. O my school, where the days of my childhood came to rest,

    A house that speaks of gifted youth.

  3. He who built your glory in his ancient book

    Decreed lasting life for you among his destinies.

  4. And poured into you verses of guidance,

    And a full measure of love and magic.

  5. Today longing drives me, and I turn back

    Ardent and trembling, toward its threshold.

  6. Longing outran my eyes upon its course,

    And sped on; my thoughts startled at its gate.

  7. I bade my tender childhood farewell beneath its shade,

    And buried my bright years within its sanctuary.

  8. I met difficulties from the vexing Zayds,

    And wept over Amr and his grammatical inflections.

  9. The dawn of my years grew fresh with its dews,

    And my hands gathered their fill of its grapes.

  10. The young raised toward you, from their pens,

    Pillars firmly planted upon your teachings.

  11. They raced toward glory within you, and all of us

    Were rightly counted among its seekers.

  12. So that glory, even as it withers

    And turns upon its heels on earth,

  13. May remain as images firmly bound within a young person,

    Imprinted upon his nerves.

  14. Glory is more fitting for the young, and indeed

    People bear resentment toward those who possess it.

  15. It is my school; though I remember what it gave me,

    I am a son of its grove, the one who sang of it.

  16. I seek to shield its pious young from spreading rumors

    About a young man who counts himself among its own.

  17. I kept growing among the young, going out each morning

    And evening amid cries of ‘Bravo!’ and ‘Welcome to him!’

  18. Until I was struck; I am not the first star

    Upon which time has cast the excess of its meteors.

  19. They spoke; souls trembled and raced

    In fear, and the lion of its forest surged and roared.

  20. ‘Ibn Yusuf has disbelieved, gone astray, and transgressed!’

    ‘He has rebelled!’ Yet I neither heed nor care.

  21. Even if, beyond death, someone seeking a man

    Extended toward me some of its means.

Sol 6