1. The abode of the noble Ptolemies, how majestic they were!
They have passed away, yet their glory remains.

2. Grant us, o eternal one, a breath of your eternity,
That we may speak of you as everlasting.

3. Unlock for us the gate of mysteries, provide us
With magic in eloquent and imaginative words.

4. I stood before you, raising my heels
In caution, lowering my gaze in reverence.

5. I bowed my head in your temple as none had bowed
Before, except to God on high.

6. I recalled a people who did not fear you
Except for grand thrones and shadows.

7. The ages have kept you safe from the ravages of time,
Generations built you, the kings adorned you.

8. They saw in you no place for improvement
Except to add more splendor and perfection.

9. They betrayed their kin and demolished their homes
And hurried to you, uncle and nephew.

10. They brought down the lords to bear witness
Among the servants, charging and wrestling.

11. Did they place you here or raise you up
When they depicted in you weapons, tongues and arrows?

12. Did they violate the sacred sanctuary or seek
Closeness, strength and favor there?

13. Lost are those who overreached, imagining
That their predecessors’ deeds fell short.

14. They deemed the temples mere ground and sky
Divergent from nature’s governance.

15. You descended from the Highest Heaven and so
The prowling wolves infested you.

16. We forget in you enmity, friendship and passion
And forget fear and hopes.

17. False is the worship that leaves hearts
Empty, heedless and neglectful.

18. No god but He who fills His people
When fate frowns or fortune fails.

19. Worship no lord, if you desire dominion,
Who aids the predator and scoundrel.

20. Worship a god who chooses you with His support
And makes your foe taste humiliation and anguish.

21. He who thinks his rule is like his worship before God
How can his state be happy?

22. The strong prey upon the weak
And fate preys upon the predator.

23. Conqueror of all conquerors, their schemes
Fell short before Him, those who tyrannized and plotted.

24. They are gone, and still the stars have not fallen
In lament, nor has the earth lost a speck.

25. The Pharaohs ruled Egypt and left
Monuments to kings all over Egypt.

26. The unrighteous Caesars passed as though they
Crossed the sands of time.

27. The noble Ptolemies are gone, yet Egypt
Grows ever more youthful.

28. Nations crumble, as is their wont
Since Noah’s time, soil and men.

29. God’s covenant and pledge
Not to oppress her with disasters.

30. So banish despair and bequeath
To your children knowledge and virtues.

31. The future is darker than your shadows,
More remote than your heights.

32. They shed their raiment – no wonder to you
Are you not their ideal statue?

33. Had awe of the Omnipotent not stopped us
A temple standing, timeless.

34. He hid His mysteries and shed above it
A light that increases the lost in error.

35. The builders erected no shrine of worship
Nay, nor travelled thither.

36. Religion endures though we know not its secret
And we shall remain, secret, ignorant.

37. Rituals have been forgotten in your precincts
So renew with pure, permitted verse.

38. You were generous with holy revelation
Then grew miserly, answering no question

39. Except with mystic forms, eloquently telling
Of victory shining and conquests unfolding.

40. Raised for Ptolemy, to spread above him
A hand that weaves crowns from heads.

41. Kings trample like her soil is their crowns’
Fearing no earthquake.

42. The masses prostrate beneath him
Bow low in terrible awe.

43. The state of mortals, ancient and recent
Is to take pride in dominion.

44. And the ruled submits, though ruler
Disdainful, overwhelming no minds.

45. O Ptolemaic house, you have enough loftiness
And shelter amidst the buildings and beauty.

46. Time was jealous of you, though it is charged
With rendering the lofty fallen.

47. We still hope for it and are certain
That nothing is impossible.

48. It will regain independence, so speak not
As though humiliation were eternal.