Sol 5.6

  1. Is there any way back for me to the age of youth,

    after all time’s vicissitudes?

  2. Will my bough return, green with leaves,

    and my worn fang become sharp again?

  3. Far beyond reach is the return of a delight

    that departed with the days of youth.

  4. Truly, one who has passed the—

    fifty-year mark should weep aloud.

  5. And among all wonders is a man of reason

    whose end lies in punishment’s lowest depth.

  6. We make sport of laying waste to all that flour—

    ishes, while erecting structures of ruin.

  7. Heaping up tainted wealth only to squander it,

    whether won by usury or plunder.

  8. He does not know that death purs—

    ues him, driven onward by the terror of the clouds.

  9. O God, Your pardon! Truly I

    have repented of my crookedness and partiality.

  10. It is not death that I fear,

    but the Day of Reckoning.

  11. And I fear that, when my account is ex—

    amined, I shall be given my book in my left hand.

  12. I fear being dragged by the Zabāniya—

    the wrathful angels.

  13. I fear being mauled by serpents

    in the Blaze, mauled as by wolves.

  14. I fear being kept forever in the

    fires, amid the heat of torment.

  15. I fear that from it there will be cut

    garments to clothe me.

  16. I fear its Zaqqum will become

    my food, and black mire my drink.

  17. I fear that if I call out to Mā—

    lik, his answer will be: “Alas for me!”

  18. I fear the cold of its moun—

    tains, and the snow upon its hills.

  19. I fear that I may plunge to the

    farthest depth of its abyss, like a shooting star.

  20. I fear that if I call upon Go—

    d there, I shall be among the unanswered.

  21. My Lord, O Allah, O

    Possessor of bounty and blessings longed for,

  22. O Answerer of the desperate person’s

    prayer, and of the stricken, broken one;

  23. O You who are veiled from the

    eyes of all beholders, without a veil.

  24. Hear my prayer, then: here is my hand;

    in it is my vessel, and here is my refuge.

  25. At the gate of Your pardon I have stood—

    and what a gate the gate of Your pardon is!

  26. Accept my repentance; truly I

    beseech You to accept my repentance.

  27. Cut off my sins, O my Go—

    d, through prayer that is answered.

  28. And admit me, O God, to the gar—

    dens of bliss, without reckoning,

  29. as neighbor to the Chosen Prophet

    and his Companions, the best companions.

  30. May God bless him as long as

    the swift camels dance—say it!—beneath their riders.

Sol 5.6