Sol 6.1

  1. O scion of Lutf Allah, among us you are

    King of virtues, generosity, and eminence.

  2. I offered a gift in exchange for a gift,

    For love of graciousness, not a beggar's plea.

  3. I saluted your glory admiringly, and you answered me

    With your kindness, ever renewed and manifold.

  4. And you sent bounty in approval, so I gave thanks for it,

    And thanked your friendly confidant for his efforts.

  5. And I heard from him the best that humankind has heard

    Of the finest affection and the noblest lineage.

  6. And I read a page of your hidden benevolence;

    Its reward is yours with Jesus and Muhammad.

  7. And life is a remembrance raised by those who recount it;

    How fair a remembrance, raised for all to see!

  8. You gave me a choice, so from your bounty I chose what

    A servant and a master alike cannot do without:

  9. A gift that circulates with time, from one hand

    That satisfies souls' needs with it, to another hand.

  10. Precious jewels are among its works, when

    It is neither let loose in vain nor held in bonds.

  11. You are the one who emboldened my verses toward

    What I had neither aspired to nor grown accustomed to.

  12. I used to feel ashamed whenever I recited what

    I would recite, fearing accusations against the reciter.

  13. So I came instead to feel ashamed whenever I see what

    You bestow of bounty, yet I have not worn it about my neck.

  14. And I began to frolic in the shade of noble deeds,

    Like birds amid the thickets of a dewy garden.

  15. And it is enough for my poetry that it is the fruit of satisfaction

    With what you carry away and with what you redeem.

  16. And what you gave me is honor enough

    For me when absent, and an adornment when present.

  17. You relieved a breast whose worry was great,

    And distress is the breast's constriction, not the hand's.

  18. I have wealth enough for self-sufficiency,

    Were it not owed to the unyielding creditor.

  19. Indeed, I discharge my obligation to a creditor,

    And put it in debt to the magnanimous, most illustrious man.

  20. Literature has borne witness in your favor: you are its support

    In your bygone yesterday, your today, and tomorrow.

Sol 6.1