In Praise of You

You are the master for whom the best key to the vault of hidden secrets is your problem-solving mind. Where your face is, there lies the delight of the heart and all knowledge; where your judgment turns, there the moon and stars bow down. Your resolve travels only the stages of good fortune, as long as the light of your clear judgment is your guide. The alchemist sun and the jewel-bearing sea, when you look closely, are each truly your beggars. How can reason reach the rank of your greatness? Where its end lies is only your beginning. The parts of the universe pray for you, for your endurance is one of the pillars of all creation. In your absence, every dawn at the door of need, my soul holds the scroll of your praise like a litany. A heart full of hope faces you, while both my eyes, brimming with tears, are turned behind you. The soul within my body is bound firm by your love; the life that slips away spends its passing on longing for you. Though at your court I do not stand in that high favor, how could I ever be a stranger when my heart knows you so well? When I listen, my whole desire is talk of you; when I glance, my gaze is fixed on seeing your face. For a long time now, at the doors of the people of this age, the whole measure of my breath has been your praise. I fear it may leap out from the balcony of my eye, these few drops of blood that are the seat of my devotion to you. When I dare to knock boldly at your door, the doorkeeper of your grandeur asks: who are you to be here? You have granted the decree that your customs hold sway; the custom I cannot do without is your good pleasure. Do not hear this humble plea from me; hear it from your own generosity, which calls out that this one is the dust of your feet. I have spent the ready coin of my life on the road of your praise, and the little that remains, that too is for you.