Sol 6.1

  1. They say to me, 'You are aloof'; yet it is only that

    They saw a man who recoiled from a station of humiliation.

  2. I see that whoever draws close to people is held cheap in their eyes,

    And whoever is ennobled by self-respect is honored.

  3. I would not have given learning its due if, whenever

    A desire for gain arose, I made learning a ladder for myself.

  4. And I have always kept my honor apart

    From humiliation, reckoning its preservation a gain.

  5. When told, 'This is a watering place,' I say, 'I do see it;

    But a free man's soul can endure thirst.'

  6. I keep it clear even of some things that do not disgrace it,

    For fear of enemies' remarks: 'What for?' or 'Why?'

  7. Thus I am safe from the base man's reproach,

    And I have become exalted in the noble man's esteem.

  8. And when an opportunity passes me by, I do not spend the night

    Turning my thoughts over it in regret.

  9. But if it comes unbidden, I accept it;

    And if it turns away, I do not pursue it with 'Why not?' and 'If only!'

  10. And I draw back my steps from many gains,

    If I cannot attain them with my honor intact and myself respected.

  11. And I hold myself too high to laugh with a scowling man,

    And to greet a blameworthy man with praise.

  12. And many a man seeking to enslave me through his favors failed to attain

    That, though he was the exalted chief.

  13. And many a favor has been a calamity for a free man,

    And many a gain the free man reckons a loss.

  14. And I did not expend my life's blood in the service of learning

    To serve whomever I met, but to be served.

  15. Must I toil to sow it, only to reap humiliation from it?

    Then following ignorance would have been more prudent.

  16. And had the people of learning safeguarded it, it would have safeguarded them;

    And had they exalted it in people's hearts, it would have been exalted.

  17. But they dishonored it and so became lowly, and they sullied

    Its face with greedy desires, until it grew grim.

  18. If you say, 'Learning's fortune is stumbling,' it only

    Stumbled when its sanctuary went unguarded and it was abandoned.

  19. And not every lightning flash that gleams before me stirs me,

    Nor do I accept everyone on earth as a benefactor.

  20. But when hardship compels me, I do not rest for the night:

    I turn my thoughts toward Najd, then toward Tihama,

  21. Until I find something whose mention will not choke me,

    When I say, 'He has shown me kindness and bestowed his favors.'

Sol 6.1