Sol 5.6

  1. A delight, in its freshness and its splendor,

    has made manifest the beauty of this edifice.

  2. A chamber—had you seen its people within,

    you would have beheld al-Rashid in al-Zawra.

  3. Like Paradise: everything one could desire

    is on its terraces, and all that delights the eye.

  4. It proudly boasts that it has been prepared

    as a morning gathering place for the chief and the notables.

  5. And when they cluster around him there,

    you would take him for the full moon among the stars of heaven;

  6. or as though he were Christ among the disci—

    —ples, whom his Lord welcomed with the midday meal.

  7. They asked him for a feast day of their own, and there came to them

    from His presence tables suspended in the air.

  8. The celestial spheres wish it might be exchanged

    for the radiant stars in the azure dome.

  9. And the radiant stars yearn to be lowered,

    to hang in its heights as lamps of light;

  10. and that the moons might serve as baker, while they long

    for Orion to become a pitcher of water.

  11. The Pleiades wish that from their stars might be fashioned

    grapes for the chief after the meal.

  12. The Ram of the horizon wished that they would carry it

    in a crescent—for that is the finest vessel.

  13. And the whiteness of the Milky Way grew still more eager

    to appear upon the dining board like a tablecloth.

  14. So eat and drink, and let your eyes be content;

    make merry and rejoice in every delight.

  15. Open wide your hearts and overflow with joy

    for a noble man, resplendent in radiance and glory,

  16. who dwells in every heart and is adorned

    with virtues too exalted to number.

Sol 5.6