Sol 6.1

  1. Yes, this lowly world is an object of love.

    For were it not for punishment and sundering death,

  2. we would live drunk on the ardor of union with her,

    and at dawn escape the cups of death.

  3. We cherish hopes, but between us and attaining them

    lie calamities that make even the steadfast heart afraid.

  4. We divide tasks that have piled upon us,

    and we amass within it, while the nights scatter.

  5. To us this world is lush meadows,

    and we are like a herd that grazes and looks about,

  6. unaware that death blocks its way in the meadow,

    and its snares are hopes, and the path is narrow.

  7. The sight of the bier terrifies us when it appears;

    swift, clamorous wailing follows in its wake.

  8. Some of us bid others farewell as they depart for a dwelling

    where the occupant's cheek is pressed down against his will.

  9. And we return to dividing the inheritances among ourselves,

    and do not know what those who left the inheritances behind encountered.

  10. And we have no recourse but condolences;

    and this is only a custom that cannot be effaced.

  11. And how strange—a dead man consoled by a dead man

    over a dead man—and from death there is no release!

  12. And it is only a path that everyone travels,

    and a door to the hereafter, open to all creation.

  13. Blessed, then, is the dead man whose provision was God;

    and woe to a dead man not granted success in that!

  14. For a creature's foreordained fate is its final end,

    decreed on the Tablet before it is created.

  15. We have accepted God's judgment upon us, for we are

    servants, and no fool can escape what God has decreed.

  16. Be patient, O Azzan; hold fast to patience,

    for however long you live, you will join them.

  17. Your father departed before his son, and his son departed

    in his wake; the son follows and falls into line.

  18. For death is not reserved for a few; it is

    universal; yet fortunate is the one granted success.

  19. And prolonged weeping and sorrow do not bring contentment;

    indeed, if it persists, it wears the body out.

  20. For Ali will not return to you now that he has departed,

    even if you spent your life tearing your eyelids in grief.

  21. And if our lord Ya'rub, son of Sultan, lives,

    then each of you will spend from his overflowing bounty.

  22. He is the surviving successor, with his realm flourishing;

    so he withholds from whom he wishes, and provides for whom he wills.

Sol 6.1