Sol 5.6

  1. Your deliverance bestowed its recompense upon the fearful,

    and your signs revealed what the eager watcher sought.

  2. All rejoiced in you as the earth rejoices

    in drought when the steadily pouring rain is set loose.

  3. O cloud of grief that cleared away, unveiling joy for us,

    as prison released Joseph into power!

  4. The chosen vizier fell ill, and there appeared upon

    all existence the signs of an illness none could hide.

  5. At your departure the breeze fell ill, and

    the late-afternoon sun donned the pallor of a wasting patient.

  6. If his rising gladdened the eyes, how long have

    they slept secure within his all-sheltering protection.

  7. Or if hands rose to pray for him—how often

    had they reached toward his ever-pouring beneficence.

  8. Time stood bewildered by his illness;

    were Time an eye, it would never blink.

  9. How strange that the days should make him ill, when they

    have never ceased, through him, to recover from every sickness.

  10. Pain gained nothing from him except what

    polishing gains from a keen-edged sword.

  11. A safeguard encircled the light of Abu Ali—

    were the morning sun beside it, that light would not be eclipsed.

  12. Though you are absent from a people, absent is not what

    you accustomed them to—gifts and gracious favor—

  13. like a plant that never meets the rain cloud, yet grows

    luxuriant upon the droplets sipped from its mouth.

  14. A bounty whose giver possesses purity of heart,

    and whose purity surpasses that ascribed to the rain-laden cloud.

  15. A generosity sustained by gracious giving—it has rivaled

    the gazelle's graceful sway, as yearning gazes attest.

  16. A polished lineage set above fierce glory,

    like watered steel's gleam across a Mashrafi blade's midsection.

  17. A resolve that flashes through every reach of his ambition,

    like fire gleaming upon a commanding height.

  18. He has no fear save reverent piety, nor

    any extravagant trait save lavish generosity.

  19. He overlooks faults though they are plainly visible:

    they show themselves, while he sees merit's hidden seat.

  20. Glory's contrary qualities do not feud within him:

    lightning's fire is not quenched by its own rain.

  21. His virtues are harmonious and complete: there is neither

    the blind man's deficiency nor the mismatch of differently colored eyes.

  22. He overtops the heights with the slightest effort,

    as an eloquent man attains his aim in a few words.

  23. A striving pure in purpose has chosen the heights,

    though they would offer themselves to him even without his choosing.

  24. Were he to seek noble endeavors in the darkness,

    he would snatch from among them none but the noblest.

  25. His generosity orders gifts as verse orders its rhymes—

    no borrowed composition and nothing forced.

  26. Petitioners may press importunately in their repeated asking;

    never have I heard of a generous man who importunes others.

  27. Your welcome, well-pleasing summons erased the propagandists' lies,

    and through it the preacher's staff became a staff that swallowed falsehood.

  28. They display guidance while intending its opposite,

    as though their preaching were speech corrupted by altered lettering.

  29. Contend with God's sword or with His Book,

    and sate the codex's inner pages with the back of the noble steed.

  30. Here she is for you—a daughter of the moment, who meets

    only an attentive ear or an impartial judge:

  31. a virgin poem born of your palate and my imagination—

    so I marveled at the nobility of this low-born verse.

  32. She delighted you with her fine-lined adornment and struck true as arrows;

    thus she came to you both feathered like a shaft and figured like brocade.

  33. Here am I, speaking with the freedom of familiar company; and you are the noblest praiser,

    the most exalted one praised, and the noblest occasion for praise.

Sol 5.6