1. Honor sublime is not spared from harm
Except by shedding blood throughout the land

2. Thus spoke the ancients, and we found
No alternative to the way of old

3. If we uphold not what our forebears built
Woe, then woe upon the sons!

4. If we adorn not a praiseworthy past
We should fear the shame of a fair face

5. If we fortify not both worlds, is there any
Escape from the toil of great affliction?

6. Oh the regret of fathers in their graves
Humiliated by the baseness of their sons

7. Oh the anguish of the dead if they returned
And found not what they hoped for in the living

8. Oh the shame upon loved ones if they were exalted
By a nobility trampled under enemies’ feet

9. Rise! In loins are men who will reckon our deeds
And in wombs are generations with bright, seeing eyes