Sol 6.1

  1. With good fortune your cavalcade travels morning and evening,

    And disappears and reappears, its soil praised.

  2. Souls delighted in your nearness, having been swept away

    In your absence by yearning and torment.

  3. Yours alone are the fertile valley and its Nile,

    And to your Lord belong sanctification and glorification.

  4. Thus you aid a warrior for you throughout the lands

    With a muezzin calling out for you among the people.

  5. The kingdoms attested your valor, and an example was taken

    From you in eastern lands, by the foreign-tongued and the eloquent alike.

  6. O finest pillar of the Caliphate, indeed what

    You reveal is sound proof for Egypt.

  7. And most dutiful of the Caliph's aides, it is enough for him

    To have in you a faithful adviser in affairs and governance.

  8. His high praise pleased you, just as

    Your openly expressed loyalty pleased him.

  9. You answered his invitation, favored with success,

    While the times were peaceful and the passage wide.

  10. You entered the capital of the Caliphate, full of longing,

    And the peace accord was fair, with agreeable terms.

  11. Troops and ships saluted your majesty,

    And cities, strongholds, and lofty edifices.

  12. Seen in them are your virtues, which

    Have adorned them, and the gold you bestowed.

  13. How many a valiant warrior strengthened his resolve through them,

    And a captive escaped, and a wounded man sought treatment.

  14. In your reign they recalled your grandfather's reign; and together came

    His legacy and your lauded deeds.

  15. They took comfort in your private counsel, which you concealed

    For a time, then came to disclose to Egypt.

  16. The outcome of trials, themselves bright and generous,

    And the fruits of that judgment, which is candid.

  17. Speak of the East that you have strengthened,

    With this sweet account, for it is candid.

  18. And explain to us the paths of safety, after

    Recruitment and armament had exhausted the foes.

  19. What wrong did a neighbor concerned for them commit?

    How often he passed the night, needy and heavily burdened!

  20. The defenders neglected their inviolable charge and turned away,

    Until their charge was violated, and they themselves became fair game.

  21. They failed one another, until, when they drove harm

    Away from themselves, their waves and the wind defied them.

  22. They split into factions; that was a crime

    Which nothing erased but spilled blood.

  23. The cities and villages emptied; their people

    And their plants faced dispersal and withering.

  24. So every frontier guard's field lay exposed to attack,

    And the heart of every believer in God's oneness was wounded.

  25. None remained but an unarmed straggler,

    As though a slaughtered victim among wolves,

  26. And a crowned man, adorned with evil deeds,

    Whom neither coronation nor decoration availed.

  27. He walks upon the ruined fortresses, gloating

    Over their guardian's blood, as he lies fallen.

  28. How many a mosque within them cried out at what

    His troops had perpetrated, and how many a tomb cried for help!

  29. He had scarcely crossed them exultant before he was appalled

    By an army, annihilating tyrants and laying waste.

  30. And as though a bird from what had blazed,

    And as though a strong swimmer in what was made to flow.

  31. And the Grand Vizier, your cousin, rescued a nation

    Whose resolve had weakened and whose spirit was stifled.

  32. And calamities overwhelmed it; had there come

    Noah to rescue it, even Noah would have failed.

  33. Sa'id of the state, son of its Halim, was aided

    By opportunities he assesses for it and makes available.

  34. And the enemies fought over the kingdom after

    Vile aggression against it had united the foes.

  35. They plundered it, then fought one another, and were driven

    From that precious spoil by one who drove them away.

  36. A mighty host expelled them from a sister of Andalusia,

    Lying in wait for the rest, full of ambition.

  37. Wrathful, formidable in punishment at the sight

    Of a tigerish aggressor, yet forgiving toward the penitent.

  38. The virtues of one with power, the mercies of a victor—

    So after conquests they seem like further conquests.

  39. The foes were humbled, the debtor paid, and fairness marked

    The papers; the grieving found relief, and the miser gave.

  40. If they demobilize those feeble armies,

    Then that demobilization leads to a return.

  41. And the rancors of tyrants endure, even if there came

    To cure them, after the Messiah, another Messiah.

  42. Peoples assail peoples, and tomorrow

    Their kings' thrones will fall and topple.

  43. A man of power once arbitrated between them;

    How many tyrants and rebels were humbled before him!

  44. Vigilant in the Balkans, he quenches its fire,

    And its instigator is scorched by its blaze.

  45. Had they made him arbiter as usual, there would have been

    On earth only obedience and submission.

  46. My lord, your presence stirred my longing, and I was delighted

    By a bright hope for your people in that presence.

  47. I sang of the Caliphate's heroes, after

    It had nearly wailed for them, and I with it.

  48. You have bestowed favors on me; and before Your Highness I have

    Verse that shines at their mention and gives off fragrance.

Sol 6.1