Sol 5.6

  1. His qualities combined fertility and water

    after the rain-star’s long excess and long estrangement.

  2. They flourished in the preserve like a strand of pearls,

    or the Pleiades glittering in the sky.

  3. Through him the spacious grounds grew pleasant, though

    before them they had lain in pitch-black gloom.

  4. Thus you see birds lingering in its sanctuary—

    among them a nightingale crying, or a ringdove—

  5. and rows of falcons from every nearby tract,

    from reaches of the dune, even those far away,

  6. leaping among verdant boughs

    that rustle in a yellow-blossomed grove,

  7. amid a meadow the eye takes for pure gold,

    standing upright in an ingot of green.

  8. The balsam’s fragrance wafts its perfume,

    like crushed aromatics in a vessel.

  9. The jasmine bows its head there in humility,

    as noble men bow humbly before captives.

  10. And the melancholy narcissus weeps from an eye

    of gold set in white silver.

  11. The fragrant herbs lean toward the rivulets

    with the lean of a lover whose hope is slight.

  12. And hosts of roses of every kind

    are like cheeks flushed red with modesty.

  13. The dew wrote upon their leaves of green—

    —in red, an inscription from the Lord of heaven.

  14. The eyes of the waters laugh until

    their pebbles outshine pearls.

  15. And the faces of the beauties radiate light

    beneath their pavilion and within the great tent.

  16. Among them is the lord of sublime eminence,

    the age’s peerless man, known to near and far alike:

  17. bright of mind, broad of heart, an ocean

    of gifts for delegations—not an ocean of water.

  18. He sucked at glory’s breast while still an infant,

    and so was clothed in the finest of all robes.

  19. He rose to the summits of excellence—marvel, then,

    at one so young who soared above Gemini!

  20. I praise al-Faḍl, son of ʿUthmān, as a lord

    whose glory has appeared without concealment;

  21. he in whose praise every written page takes pride,

    and by describing whom every beholder is adorned.

  22. Before him every eloquent speaker fades away,

    even one who rose above the masters of eloquence.

  23. A lord whose praise has indeed become my daily litany,

    and extolling him is counted among my alchemy.

  24. Here—take from me a panegyric like striped robes

    which mankind has carried to Sana‘a—

  25. or like one taking dates as merchandise to Yathrib,

    or a breeze brought to a place already endowed with air.

Sol 5.6