Sol 5.6

  1. With all the beauty of Meknes of the Olives,

    the enthralled beholder’s excuse stands justified.

  2. Its air’s excellence and the wholesomeness of the water

    that flows through it, and the soundness of all it stores;

  3. Every brimming eye has poured down upon her—

    the rainclouds’ streaming eye, the cloud pouring down.

  4. So the rose’s cheek reddened among her riverbeds,

    and the blossom’s mouth smiled among the boughs.

  5. Witness enough for her, however she lays claim

    to the victor’s palm, is her nearness to Zerhoun.

  6. A mountain whose lightning flashes laugh across its sky,

    so its springs’ sweet waters weep through eyes.

  7. As though it were a Berber visitor,

    with “By the fig and the olive” upon his tablet.

  8. Hail, O city whose earth is fertile,

    an abode of safety, or the campsite of a trusty she-camel.

  9. A providential care from God has been set over you,

    clothing you in the twin garments of security and peace.

Sol 5.6