Sol 6.1

  1. Whoever repents for fear of punishment—as for me,

    I repented out of delight in these volumes.

  2. They stirred me to recitation and devotion,

    though I had not thought myself among the reciters.

  3. When they came, delighting me with their balance

    of shape, coloring, and symmetry.

  4. Seven, to which the seven stars were likened,

    endowed with light and radiance.

  5. They were clad in their dark, jet-black leather,

    a covering—what a noble covering!

  6. Resembling the hue of youth and the tresses

    of maidens, and the garb of preachers.

  7. They saw that contrast made them beautiful,

    so they gloried in a white robe.

  8. So their backs are blackened, and within them

    a light of truth dispels the dark night's gloom.

  9. Enclosing pages like fine cloth,

    chosen from gazelles' hides.

  10. And the writing in them seems like gardens,

    grateful for the bounty of the rains.

  11. And the whiteness and the black dots seem

    like perfume you have sprinkled upon sheets.

  12. And the ten-verse markers and the gleaming gold

    within them are like stars in a sky.

  13. And they are marked with various vowel signs,

    and recited in different ways.

  14. So if you wish, Hamza is there in them,

    and if you wish, al-Kisa'i is there.

  15. Green amid yellows and reds,

    between those folds and layers,

  16. like the traces left by creeping ants

    on the skin of a tender, graceful woman.

  17. They contain the well-wrought text of the Book, the Book of

    God, possessor of noble favors and blessings.

  18. So it is incumbent on me to recite the Qur'an

    from them, morning and evening.

Sol 6.1