Sol 6.1

  1. We found the strides of speech wide open,

    So we made our love-song a song of praise for you.

  2. We poured forth what was in our hearts, and out flowed

    Praise of you before the love-song, spreading wide.

  3. We turned toward your eminence and fashioned

    From it a sash for the breasts of verse.

  4. We emblazoned the faces of verse with

    White blazes from your shining deeds of generosity.

  5. Your gifts planted in the soil of hearts

    Saplings that bore pure affection.

  6. How many a broken man you mended, and a poor man

    Seeking gifts you sent back as one sought for gifts.

  7. And rebellious lands you tamed with resolve,

    Until you made them forget their unruliness.

  8. And mute wishes you gave scope in

    Speech, until you restored them to eloquence.

  9. The house of Saman drew from you a keen sword,

    Whose edge brings endeavor to full success.

  10. The vizierate found worthy of praise in Ahmad

    A fire that makes lances and sword-blades flow.

  11. Were the kingdoms asked to speak

    Of him, they would rise to extol his name.

  12. Enamored of praise, intent on earning

    Commendation, he thrills with delight at generosity.

  13. He tastes sleep only in the hope

    Of seeing a gift-seeker's phantom visit at evening.

  14. O Abu Nasr, who gave the kingdom aid,

    And made al-Mansur and al-Saffah forgotten.

  15. The earth grew too narrow for you, so you sought an abode

    That could hold the sea, the rain, and generosity.

  16. And when reservoirs are too narrow for the flood,

    It refuses to settle anywhere but the broad valley floors.

  17. So joy be yours in a house there that holds, in you,

    Weighty mountains of forbearance.

  18. Its being twin to the vizierate is one thing

    That makes the proof of its good fortune clearer.

  19. Its breast, as broad as yours, has

    Grown broader than those who hope in you imagined.

  20. [Unclear subject] plants kisses upon its heights,

    Planting them, then reaping success.

  21. In a courtyard [reading uncertain], we lengthen the strides of our gaze,

    And find there freedom for thought.

  22. Its hall fills the eyes with splendor;

    Its courtyard fills the hearts with delight.

  23. Its plaster is silver, its roof-tiles raw gold,

    Drawn forth indeed from your bounty.

  24. Its soil is ambergris mingled with musk;

    If the east wind blows through it, its fragrance spreads.

  25. There the columns are veiled, above

    Stones lying flat and prone.

  26. In each of its halls, the carpets are arrayed

    There in the robe of spring.

  27. And between every two skin-vessels [text uncertain] I see, like a garden—

    Until, through it, they became a shallow pool.

  28. And its water watered gardens on its two banks,

    —A broad channel of carpet.

  29. A dye made from hearts' blood; whoever

    Sees it thrills with longing and delight.

  30. The gardens weep with dew only

    In shame before its gardens, and disgrace.

  31. The decoration resembled its carpets, just as

    Its young attendants resembled its lovely statues.

  32. And the doors seem companions that meet

    In closing, then part in opening.

  33. And the curtains seem as though a peacock had spread

    From them a wing at every doorway.

  34. And its glass panes seem suns

    Raised at dawn by the summits of the domes.

  35. The columns are like forearms that have overturned

    Beneath them the goblets of their foundations.

  36. And chambers that seem fortresses,

    Resolved to butt against the heavenly lights.

  37. And a portico where it seems there are outstretched

    In prayer the palms of the columns' hands.

  38. And gardens—were I in the Garden of Paradise,

    I would ask for none but these.

  39. And when the cups make their rounds there,

    You see eternal bliss there, freely available.

  40. From the hands of each enchanter of the gaze—one plucks

    Roses and apples from his cheeks.

  41. And when the treble string answers the flute in song,

    The bulbul answers the nightingale with calls.

  42. In a place where our cares are wiped away

    By intoxication, which makes our joys endure.

  43. The sun brings forth stars whenever

    The suns of the basins brandish lances drawn from it.

  44. The radiance of cupbearers, wine, and cups

    Has made the lamp there needless.

  45. And whenever the censers blaze with embers,

    Their breezes bring the spirits back to life.

  46. And whenever they are fed spear-butts of perfume,

    They extend lances formed from their smoke.

  47. So may you rejoice in a Garden of Eden there,

    Which holds in you a magnanimous lord.

  48. So spend your lifetime in its open grounds,

    Broad and spacious, with evening and morning draughts amid the rain.

  49. And fill your mind with an embellished poem

    About you; do not treat it with aversion and rejection.

  50. For if I held someone's gaze with what

    I have said, he could not depart from my open ground.

Sol 6.1