The Crown of the Mountain

Oh great pearl of the valley,
You whose golden light gleams among the emeralds,
Beside the silver vein that flows
Into that broad pool in the garden of the gods.
The stars in their eternal envy,
Look down upon you and would only descend
To walk humbly in your gardens
Among the arches and columns of your majesty.
The sun paints your walls,
And plays about your fountains and your windows,
She is the finest artist
And her work exalts and elevates your form.
The fruits upon your trees
I have known no better in all my journeys,
They are sweet of taste
Truly they are trees worthy to bow to you.
The horses that grace your slopes
They are the finest across every land and plain,
Proud warriors and travelers
That carry your people forward to their fate.
This lowly traveler
Must avert her eyes from the greatness of you
For what worth is she
To gaze upon your beauty that gilds the mountain.

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This poem was originally found as an inscription decorating the Hall of the Ambassadors in the Golden Palace, which housed the royal family of the Kodiri Empire for nearly three thousand years until its ruination. It only survives due to a traveling writer who recorded it and many other poems, for the delicate stucco in which is was carved was marred by the soldiers of the warlord Veshir.
A plaque with the first eight lines was erected outside the old main entrance to the palace complex shortly before restoration work began. The city of Lidaidi, outside which the palace sits, has finished restoring the Hall of the Ambassadors, allowing the poem to be viewed in its original setting for the first time in nearly five thousand years.