Sol 6.1

  1. Glory is a sea; you are those who come to its waters.

    And excellence is a branch; you are its blossoms.

  2. And good fortune is a grove; you are its branches.

    And pride is a grandsire; you are his children.

  3. And right judgment is a zenith; you are its poles.

    And forbearance is a pole; you are its stakes.

  4. And reason is a light; you are its lamp-niche.

    And firm resolve is land; you are its mountains.

  5. And knowledge is a letter; you are its vowel marks,

    and its lines, its pages, and its ink.

  6. O house of Ahmad, you are the light of humankind,

    and the beacon of the sphere of eminence, and its pillar.

  7. No tidings from heaven, nor its revelation, are confirmed

    unless you are their authorities among humankind.

  8. If treacherous Time had sense, it would clasp you—

    O house of Fatimah the Chaste—to its heart.

  9. Or if it could see whoever it beheld with its eye,

    its eyelid and pupil would incline tenderly over you.

  10. But the lids of its eyes have gone blind

    to the light of your eminence, and its sound judgment has strayed.

  11. If a group is reckoned, you are its scholars;

    or if there is an age, you are its masters;

  12. or if war flares up, you are its fires,

    and its swords, its spears, and its straight lances.

  13. O house of Fakhr, O offspring of Haydar,

    you are the inward meaning of our praise and its intent.

  14. You tower above the people of the age, for you are

    its leading lights, its beauty, and its rectitude.

  15. And you outstripped whoever sought to outrun your steed

    blindly; so his steed fell short of its range.

  16. Can anyone then aspire to the station of As'ad's father—

    the banner of guidance, its beacon, and its flint?

  17. A sea: when his palm's overflowing waters roar,

    his gulf and his shallow pools enrich the supplicants.

  18. A scholar who shows you rare gems, freely bestowed

    by his passing thoughts, and given generously by his heart.

  19. They lay veiled within a spacious breast,

    then his reed pen and his ink revealed them.

  20. And from him the lamps of guidance were kindled,

    and through them its darkness and blackness cleared.

  21. And from his palm the hard rocks of bounty burst open,

    and from them his water-seekers drank their fill after thirst.

  22. He inherited lordship from his father and grandfather,

    and his children inherited it from them both.

  23. So, from their glory, the dawns of their good fortune appeared;

    thus his feast days have grown fair through them.

  24. Their faces are radiant, their ancestral honors noble;

    a branch of al-Rida—their forefathers are his forefathers.

  25. A light branched forth from Ahmad's lamp-glass,

    until his Baghdad shone through them.

  26. Forgive me, lords, for a poem of praise

    brought forth by the single units of your thousand.

  27. It is brief, and of your virtues it has indeed fallen short;

    and the mind has grown barren, and its steed has grown weary.

  28. So rejoice, Abd Allah, in the feast whose

    hosts have come for the majesty of your victory.

  29. So take the station of honor beneath its banners,

    for its appointed day has indeed fulfilled its promise of joy to you.

  30. And reap the rewards of fasting, for so often

    its blossoms have flourished with the pure water of your generosity.

  31. And set your sharp sickles to its crop;

    its harvest time has come, O son of the most noble.

  32. And rejoice in lasting well-being and honor,

    in eminence whose ages never end.

Sol 6.1