Sol 6.1

  1. Shall I turn back from my purpose, now that concealment has lifted,

    and I have reached the brink of my short life?

  2. And I see the eye’s tear ducts holding back their water,

    though once they had resembled the rain-pouring clouds.

  3. And I think that has befallen them as a lesson,

    from a hardness in the heart resembling smooth rock.

  4. And for me, long weeping over my lapse is all too little;

    for weeping may intercede for one who has erred.

  5. Indeed, sins never settle in a dwelling

    except to turn it into a bare, level plain.

  6. And had I treated the deadly harm of their disease

    with the salves of piety, I would have found healing,

  7. and shunned their watering place, tainted by their murk,

    and washed the heart’s rust in the spring of purity,

  8. and routed the mighty host of their error through repentance,

    and drawn from remorse for them a keen-edged sword,

  9. and forsaken a world that has always been treacherous

    to those who hope in it and offer it unalloyed loyalty.

  10. It ground them and their homes as a millstone grinds;

    so dust lies upon them and upon their homes.

  11. And indeed, what is feared for them from their Lord

    on the Day of Recompense is the Fire—unless He pardons.

  12. Indeed, when a thoroughbred horse strives for a goal,

    it reaches the farthest bound and outstrips the crossbred horse.

  13. How far apart are one girding himself for his final return

    at all times, and another who is forever procrastinating!

  14. Indeed, I have called upon You insistently, that You may protect me

    from what I fear; so do not turn away the insistent supplicant.

Sol 6.1