Sol 6

  1. I shrink from having my reproach spoken to them.

    Who can make the deaf hear a plea?

  2. Suppose you forgot every favor that helped my striving

    toward the heights; could you forget the praise?

  3. Through you I reached the earth in days of reproach,

    and in days of favor I attained the sky.

  4. If you repay a kindness with kindness,

    he counts it only as repayment.

  5. Then where is generosity, my lord,

    if people say you answered wrong with wrong?

  6. How often the first down upon the cheek has worn out love for you,

    and, proud of it, dragged its cloak along.

  7. You fill his heart until reproach overflows,

    as rain may fill a vessel.

  8. If I am given avoidance in place of closeness,

    and harshness in place of gentleness,

  9. may generosity never forget him when he forgets it

    as a bond, nor cut off its call.

  10. He hears those who blame him with an unheeding heart,

    and in your case will yield only to refusal.

  11. He waits for payment, if you would consider him;

    it fails him, and he waits for judgment.

  12. Rule as you wish over the heart of a servant

    who has let you rule his wishes as you please.

  13. No, by God, may these eyes never look upon anyone but you,

    even if they stream blood at your reproach.

  14. If your favor brings dawn to my evening,

    your displeasure has made it evening.

  15. I swear I shall remain cast down until

    God grants me a meeting with you.

  16. When reason gathers to forbid my passion,

    it insists on transgression, never an end.

  17. I recalled your lofty rank in every state,

    and in each you stood at the greatest height.

  18. Your glory is like clouds rising high,

    and your smile like a full moon appearing.

  19. Your generosity is like rain drawing near,

    and your rank like a star far away.

  20. Your horses are like darkness closing in,

    and your victory like dawn shining.

  21. What a hand of yours God has bestowed,

    giving so much that its secret became a veil.

  22. Its apology makes a kindness seem a fault,

    so one cannot tell whether it did good or ill.

  23. The loveliest sight on earth to me

    is his humility, though he has reached the sky.

  24. What a generous right hand is yours:

    we have known its summer as winter always.

  25. An army of meanings marches before it

    when it waves the pen like a banner.

  26. How often our requests fled out of shame,

    but his generosity called them back: there is no escape.

  27. He is the sword from which

    the swords of warriors learned their sharpness.

  28. When an age made free men cheap,

    you held them dear and paid dearly for them.

  29. As for this one's benefit, it endured,

    while that one's flood passed away as refuse.

  30. May they never lack ease through him; and as for

    his purchase of them, may it never lose its high price.

  31. The most lasting gift I gave you is my verse,

    while so many gifts have vanished into dust.

  32. He gives his today, tomorrow, and yesterday,

    whether asked, after a promise, or on his own initiative.

  33. He bares a free man's leg to strive for the heights,

    and never folds his cushion to recline.

  34. When could praise ever be enough for you?

    Who would count it as adequate repayment?

  35. How often you led them in, white and thirsty,

    and brought them out red and sated.

  36. How often you brought morning out of flashing blades,

    and brought evening back from battle dust.

  37. To you I bring it like the loveliest bride:

    may sons and good fortune never fail you.

  38. What is the pearl beside it? From of old,

    when it finds brilliance, it lacks true splendor.

  39. You filled my hands with wealth—may I ransom yours—

    so that, if I reproach you, my mouth fills with water.

  40. Here I am, having fled to a physician

    in whom, despite despair, I found a cure.

  41. Let the days know

    that through him I rose from earth to sky.

  42. If distinctions were lost from people's minds,

    then all people would be equal.

  43. When their swords are girded on by hands,

    you see the disease lodged in the cure.

  44. Leave the two kinds of falsehood, in speech and deed;

    I have found them alike.

  45. Falsehood in speech is called an impossibility,

    and falsehood in action is called hypocrisy.

  46. Do not grieve for one who has brought you grief,

    and do not mourn a person who has done wrong.

  47. Do not follow him with fire from your heart,

    or follow him with tears from your eyes.

  48. Do not fix your gaze upon the traces

    that have made it suffer, until it resembles their erasure.

  49. I have a soul that, though it has lost a dear one

    from this world, has not lost its power of consolation.

  50. Suppose I am a physician of grief: it remains.

    How, then, could I suppose that I shall remain forever?

  51. I have learned what time is; would that knowledge were ignorance.

    It sustains neither despair nor prosperity.

  52. So do not be deceived by the freshness of faces,

    for judgment lies beneath outward beauty.

  53. An echo may be taken by the ear for a voice,

    and a gleam by the eye for water.

  54. What sovereignty we found in contentment:

    through it, the poor are found to be rich.

  55. No land has complained of my footsteps,

    going out or setting forth in pursuit.

  56. I fear no delay from the days,

    nor do I seek to collect a debt from the world.

  57. Though desires flash with lightning,

    I am ashamed even to feel shame before their flashes.

  58. I came last among them, yet in the foremost place;

    the bravest in an army is the one who walks behind.

  59. To preserve the water of honor on the pages of my face,

    I spill blood upon the blades.

  60. It taught you to turn them over as hearts;

    would that passion and hearts were mere air.

  61. I see your lavish giving as sound judgment,

    and the furthest reaches of humility as pride.

  62. May you remain with us amid the night's troubles,

    offering us clarity amid its murk.

  63. You bring us a cheerful welcome through the darkness

    that turns bewildered hope into guidance.

  64. I dislike giving when I see it joined to arrogance,

    and love refusal when gracious courtesy makes it a gift.

  65. You watch his right hand trace the letter lām for wealth,

    which the eye sees as water upon the pages.

  66. May your reward not be delayed to another world:

    I cannot be content with this world as your reward.

  67. In your shade we kept company with hearts

    that grew carefree, and hands you filled.

  68. You have won heaven, hearts, and earth

    through prayer, loyalty, and praise.

  69. Praise has made you lasting despite time,

    and this art has never been accustomed to perish.

  70. The derivation of the word is proof enough:

    when they lengthen tharā, they say tharāʾ.

  71. What lies above the soil is counted as part of it;

    so do not acquire mere earth—acquire modesty.

Sol 6