Sol 5.6

  1. And a creature of wondrous form, born in Egypt—

    Nowhere on earth but Egypt is it found.

  2. It is the marauding beast of her Upper Nile,

    seizing whoever seeks the Nile’s water,

  3. snatching him as an eagle snatches its prey,

    then tearing him limb from limb and swallowing him.

  4. Of all the creatures emerging from the Nile, none

    but it has both hands and feet, and it climbs onto land.

  5. Perhaps on land it meets a formidable adversary,

    yet it runs like a swift steed—or faster still.

  6. It has a long, trailing tail that it can raise;

    with it, it coils around a man who then goes missing.

  7. Its teeth come interlocked, female upon male—

    inspect them: they are made to break hard bones.

  8. It digs in the sand and buries its eggs,

    returning to tend them every other day until they hatch.

  9. Swords make no impression upon it, as though

    its skin itself formed a closely linked coat of armor.

  10. But beneath the foreleg lies a soft patch of skin,

    and through it death can make its way up to the beast.

  11. It has no anus through which to void its dung;

    instead, the waste returns to its throat.

  12. So it opens its mouth, and then a bird enters

    and expels what had begun breeding worms inside the beast.

  13. But if it tries to close its jaws upon the bird,

    the roof of its throat is lanced by the feathers.

  14. The buffalo can kill it; therefore, when it becomes aware

    of one, it flees, straining hard as it swims.

  15. Man outwits it until he catches it,

    then binds it with rope like a shackled goat.

  16. We saw one carried upon a camel, while

    its two ends reached the ground, gouging furrows in it.

  17. Reason has a stratagem for hunting crocodiles,

    devised by sound judgment and worthy of praise.

  18. The rational being is subject to fate, yet has power—

    a vigilant, divinely aided master over every living soul.

  19. Neither birds in the air nor beasts in the wilderness,

    nor any blood-shedding creature, escapes his pursuit.

  20. He subdues them by killing, slaughter, and servitude;

    yet in the end, the rational man is laid in a grave’s niche.

Sol 5.6