Sol 6.1

  1. Huda, you journeyed, denying neither eye nor ear

    your lovely words and your most radiant appearance.

  2. Through you I remembered al-Zahra as she traveled in her litter,

    Quraysh surrounding her pure caravan and the women in litters.

  3. You boarded the ship toward glory, gracious of spirit,

    and your gracious daughter will one day steer the ships.

  4. The country's banners shade you, fluttering,

    and the women delegates have embraced and kissed them.

  5. You spent the feast abroad—a feast whose like was accustomed to

    your noble presence, beneficence, gentleness, and blessing.

  6. You spoke, and your speech became the women's argument through which

    they sought what men possessed and attained it.

  7. Time recounted it and made it precious; and there drew near,

    through it, the nations of the West to the daughter of the Near East.

  8. Even had you not cast it into words, there would have arisen from

    your dignity a meaning no other meaning could reach.

  9. So you did not return until you had impressed every nation

    with your people, and their enemy had become their close friend.

  10. You portrayed them in every valley as angels,

    noble, just as you portrayed their land as Eden.

  11. And you were not, in the cities that welcomed you,

    less than the conqueror who conquered cities.

  12. Lightning sped across the world, bearing your views aloft,

    and one scholar extolled you, while another praised you.

  13. I saw you in the prayer niche, purest of heart,

    and in the arena I esteemed your achievement and standing.

  14. Had your valley held ten noble women

    like you, they would have directed affairs and managed them.

  15. Can we forget, when there raged against Egypt and her people

    storms that terrified mankind and shook them?

  16. You marched, and freeborn women marched to the struggle,

    into fire and steel, following behind you.

  17. How often you, pride of all faces, faced keen swords,

    and how often flanks met swaying, supple lances.

  18. Many a man and woman martyred for the homeland—

    you spared their families sorrow through the comfort you gave.

  19. O daughter of Sultan, the first to stand

    on the council's rostrum—you stand exalted in father and son.

  20. You strove and pleased the country, though never free

    were your efforts of those who strayed in them and those who did wrong.

  21. And whoever calls daughterhood a source of discord

    deserves that we give him no weight.

  22. How blessed its earthly life, how fine its faith—

    a homeland grown mighty and self-sufficient through what you bestowed on it!

  23. Chains of imitation and shackles of custom

    you broke, witnessing neither blows nor spear-thrusts.

  24. You erased what the old and bygone had inscribed,

    and brought what the new had written and ordained.

  25. You are nothing but the example for women, through which

    they learned their country's rightful claim upon them.

  26. The finest valley is that whose women have grown virtuous,

    and the best realm is one built on good character.

  27. Had the community's women not roused its men,

    they would neither have raised a head nor opened an eyelid.

  28. Peace upon the beautiful, dark-eyed women as they rise,

    lightly shouldering what exhausted and wearied men.

  29. I see the homeland's graceful maiden as a hero in character,

    though in form she resembles the full moon and a bough.

  30. Do we fear for her, when she inspires the greatest fear,

    and guard her, when she is the one who grants safety?

  31. And forbid her to leave a tent,

    though she has sent forth so many armies and taken so many fortresses?

  32. Does unveiling lessen desire for untainted beauty,

    while concealing her beauty arouses desire for the beautiful woman?

  33. Has a hand ever touched a sun or taken hold of it?

    Yet how many eyes it has dazzled, how many minds it has occupied!

  34. The veil that guards the secluded chamber is not impregnable,

    nor is the protecting face-veil silk and cotton.

  35. A beautiful woman's chastity is nothing but an instinct,

    and the soul's disposition was never a science or an art.

  36. Many a father has handed his daughter to a husband

    as he offered what he owned for sale or as a pledge.

  37. And if he guarded her out of concern and jealousy,

    he made his house a prison for her, though she had done no wrong.

  38. Such are the suspicions she meets from him that she all but

    asks his permission for every passing thought.

  39. If a woman asks a man for a right,

    it is her right that he not think ill of her.

  40. Does she accomplish what a man cannot accomplish,

    yet he grants her a quarter of the reward, or an eighth?

  41. She has what he has—in speech, action, and purpose—

    so neither side suffers oppression or unfair loss.

  42. If he is human, there is a human woman for him;

    and if he is a jinn, she becomes a jinn beside him.

  43. If a person trains his left hand just as

    the right was trained, it and the right become equal.

  44. My youth and health departed with my loved ones,

    so no garden stirred my longing, nor any dwelling delighted me.

  45. Peace upon the heart that wasting sickness is about

    to trouble, after it has afflicted the belly.

  46. I accepted that my breast should suffer and waste away

    with sickness, while my certainty neither fades nor perishes.

  47. I spurned sweet-flowing nectar, and once more, from

    my blood and tears, I gulp a hot, salty draught.

  48. My illness accustomed me to spending the night hungry,

    even if they offered quail and manna before me.

  49. Nothing ails me but compassion for one gone far away;

    I yearn to meet him, longing as he has longed.

  50. I never forgot him for a day, nor did he forget me; nor

    did I begrudge him my life, nor did he begrudge me his.

  51. Every ailing person regains his life

    when the days return what they took from us.

Sol 6.1