Sol 6.1

  1. I would ransom with both my eyes what the vizier conceals and reveals;

    for their light comes from the abundance of his favors to me.

  2. I shall strive to ransom the places his sandal treads;

    and if I am not accepted, I have nothing but my effort.

  3. Your suffering has indeed infected the lands and their people,

    and I never thought an ailment could be contagious from afar.

  4. And I knew nothing of the illness that befell him—

    by his bounty—until Glory came seeking redress.

  5. Nor do I think that fever, however great its power,

    would dare approach the wellspring of Glory.

  6. It comes only from the blazing of his mind:

    it blazed until it overflowed from the intensity of its fire.

  7. May he whom you now hold in bondage ransom you;

    for all mankind—indeed, every living soul—ransoms you.

  8. And the freeborn have never ceased to ransom their slaves,

    so the slave's life-blood may shield them from what they fear.

  9. I keep aloof from friends, without mistrust;

    this is deemed coldness, though loyalty to them is my constant aim.

  10. I was nourished on it as a child; for if I sought to abandon it,

    it resisted, and the cradle's familiarity drew me back to it.

  11. Just as your two hands have grown accustomed to giving and generosity,

    so you both are unable to refuse a beggar's hand.

  12. Yet I fulfill my obligations through my intention,

    and reach the utmost degree of nearness in my distance.

  13. And my heart, my affection, and my speech serve them,

    and I exert my utmost in honoring my bonds of loyalty to them.

  14. But if you two do not accept an excuse from me,

    and demand of me in this more than I can manage,

  15. then bid my nature give way, for it

    acknowledges your right as masters over the slave.

Sol 6.1