Sol 6.1

  1. These noble deeds and lofty glory take pride

    In a day of noble achievement whose hours are radiant.

  2. A day that Time unveiled with a smile, and there gathered

    For it good fortunes; I, the inexperienced, lowered my gaze before it [text unclear].

  3. So that we seemed to see, wherever we turned,

    A garden in whose midst the flowers had opened.

  4. When it shone forth, revealing radiant hopes,

    Glory said, “Through you I rise high and gain power.”

  5. It arrived without an appointed time, bringing us glad tidings

    That others of its kind will follow it.

  6. The sweetest joy is that which comes unexpectedly,

    And of which neither words nor thoughts have whispered.

  7. Had glad tidings greeted us with news of its coming,

    Joys would have rushed toward it, racing one another.

  8. And none who freely gives his lifeblood is reproached,

    For this day of yours alone is a lifetime.

  9. When you went forth, with the eye's moisture turning

    Only toward a sight that dazzles and delights,

  10. Your awe-inspiring presence turned gazes back, weary,

    Until a sidelong squint appeared in their glances.

  11. When you studied them, they lowered their eyes; and if they looked,

    They looked amid all that with the slightest turn.

  12. In a robe that no onlooker's eye beheld

    With any doubt that it was your radiant virtues.

  13. You clothed it in light from yourself, by which it shines,

    As the moon lit the edges of its rainclouds.

  14. And you had girded on a keen sword whose striking edge is you,

    And from you it learns what to do and what to leave undone.

  15. It kept growing, from the radiance of its edge,

    In pride, with haughtiness and exuberance showing in it.

  16. And the sun envies a noble steed you ride,

    Till she almost descends from the celestial spheres.

  17. So much that I thought the sun had been stirred

    By longing, and kept scattering herself over its two flanks.

  18. I summoned my thought, but did not commend its reply;

    Yet after much difficulty it came, apologizing.

  19. Do not take exception, having witnessed my speechlessness,

    For on such occasions speechlessness does not intoxicate [text unclear].

Sol 6.1