Ode 2: In Praise of Shah Sheikh Abu Ishaq

The king of the fourth throne, whose sovereign is the sun, has the royal seal inscribed on the face of his charter of fortune. The twin stars have placed a crown of joy upon their heads and drawn around themselves a robe scented with musk. The praise-singers of heaven, in the place of their setting and prostration, have opened their tongues to glorify: our Lord is Most High. Time rushed on toward dawn, and I with the strength of my thoughts; the wheel of heaven kept turning, and I kept asking why and how. What is the point of these bright, pointless things? What is the destination of these tireless travelers of the road? Why is one fixed and another wandering? Why is one hidden and another in plain sight? I stayed lost in this thought and reflection until dawn, when the sky's face was washed with pale raw silver. Like Bizhan freed from his pit, dawn broke out of the prison of night, by the strength of destiny's Rustam and the striking hand of fate. In this narrow pass of thought, from the unseen herald a blessed voice reached the ear of my soul: O you whose mind is heedless of true outcomes, you don't grasp this much, yet you call yourself wise. The purpose of the high wheel's turning and the stars' motion, the aim behind the elements and the nature of all things, is the sacred existence of this just king, the shelter of the faith of Muhammad, the trusted guardian of God's realm: Abu Ishaq, the beauty of fortune, world, and religion, master of the face of Manuchehr and the majesty of Darius, a fate in splendor, a destiny in power, the age itself in strength, the sky in awe, the heavens in throne, the sun in generosity. The scratch of his pen oversees the treasury of the unseen; his bright mind unveils the mysteries of the sky. The bud of fortune smiles at his radiant face; the lily-tongue of victory speaks his praise. O refuge of the world, if your commanding will wished it, with one lofty gesture that unties every knot, it would clear the mind of time from the blackness of night and free the sun from its thirst and dropsy. As long as, from the influence of the seven planets and four elements, there come the five senses, the three spirits, and the seven limbs, may these three fives bring you your desire and your name, to spite the accursed envier, here in this brief inn of a world. May your art-nurturing judgment always hold sway, and your generous nature always have its wish fulfilled. May you celebrate a thousand feasts in triumph and pleasure, and live a thousand years, a thousand meanings over.