1. Who will do me justice against the master of writing,

    the sun of the sciences, the moon of letters?

  2. He has come to possess the qualities of eloquence,

    and, once he took the lead, demanded that someone catch up.

  3. Can the laggard keep pace with the frontrunner?

    Or can the achiever and the one pleading excuses be equals?

  4. He kept diverting me from an aim,

    and rousing me with what he put forth.

  5. At times, then, he takes the swallow as his theme,

    with marvels that exhaust every description.

  6. And at other times he attends to describing the partridge,

    drawing on my speech to prove his excellence.

  7. He circles around a known aim,

    and an intention plain in his verse,

  8. until the foam cleared from the pure milk,

    and allusion yielded to explicit speech.

  9. And it became clear that the parrot was his aim

    in everything he had previously put forth.

  10. So he left no speaker anything to say

    about her, nor any scope for a thought.

  11. He bestowed on her the finest of every description,

    and fashioned the fairest of the ornaments of meaning.

  12. He alluded, through her gray-flecked green plumage,

    and through the redness of her collar and beak,

  13. to the meadow mingled with anemones,

    and green enamel with carnelian.

  14. She glories in a mantle of emerald,

    and an eye like jet set in gold,

  15. and the beauty of a high-arched, deep-red beak,

    as though it were fashioned from coral.

  16. Her solitude in captivity has made her,

    through her speech, one of humankind's eloquent speakers.

  17. Among birds, her articulate speech sets her apart

    from every creature except humankind.

  18. She repeats what she hears without falsehood,

    without alteration, in earnest or in play.

  19. Her nourishment is the purest food, in abundance;

    she drinks no water and fears no thirst.

  20. She has a jutting beak you would take for ruby;

    she accepts no food but rice.

  21. It is as though the grain in her beak

    were a bubble floating on her wine.

  22. Her daring, with her fierce might,

    has lodged her in an iron cage.

  23. So she is like a young beauty in a green dress,

    sheltering in a pavilion, yet not concealed.

  24. And the inimitable description of her lies beyond reach,

    and its like is not to be had for any other.

  25. Were 'Parrot' not my nickname, I would not have cut this short;

    but I feared they would say I was championing myself.

  26. And she is fittingly described only

    by Abu Ishaq's skill in portraying her.

  27. He honored her and increased her honor

    with wise sayings, brilliantly woven into patterns.

  28. How, then, can I repay with the choicest praise

    the one who directed praise to my name and nickname?

Sol 6.1