Sol 5.6

  1. The bounty of your rule has left me no need

    for security, rank, or wealth.

  2. So meeting those endowed with virtues became my desire,

    and I deemed this aim a condition of perfection.

  3. I stated it in summary, while for its elucidation yearned

    lofty aspirations—and you became the interpreter of the summary.

  4. And, in jealous devotion, I singled out all others for rejection,

    and made your name a witness to deeds.

  5. Surely, O Ibn Abī al-ʿAlāʾ, you have donned the fresh garments of the notables,

    leaving all the people of earth in tatters.

  6. If men of merit record some signal excellence,

    you have surely brought it to perfection.

  7. Your subjects praise you—their hopes

    are that your hands may attain all that is hoped for.

  8. You let them graze at liberty; yet never came near them,

    barred by your impregnable wall, the night-marauder Neglect.

  9. Whomever you governed, Glory took into her care;

    and whomever you cast aside has no protector at all.

Sol 5.6