Sol 5.6

  1. Has he who wronged his own soul awakened and repented?

    Has he seen the clear road after straying, and found the right path?

  2. Indeed, I am he whose mercy embraced all creation,

    yet I engulfed kingdoms and peoples in torment.

  3. When a deluge of suffering swept across the earth,

    I sent blood and steel coursing through it in torrents.

  4. Though humankind builds up the age with its knowledge,

    it leaves cities and countries in ruins.

  5. Look upon this world: its gray hairs will show you

    a world displaying bloom and youth.

  6. This one looks out upon the peoples, and this one

    drives the caravans onward, seeking no return.

  7. God ordained it as a life, fresh and flourishing,

    and prepared it as a reward for the righteous.

  8. Say to the kings: Will you follow your own age,

    or adopt the ways of an age not your own?

  9. Kingship obtained through allegiance and counsel is not

    like kingship seized by violence and conquest—

  10. those who climb to thrones over skulls,

    who raise palace heights upon human necks,

  11. who deny nations their rightful due,

    and claim their peoples are mere flies;

  12. each one a solitary man upon the throne, possessing

    whole nations whose multitude astounds the children of the age.

  13. Magnificent in his processions, he cares nothing whether they greet the morning

    content, or spend the night angry with him.

  14. Wealth is gathered and the countries submit;

    the army struts proudly, coming and going.

  15. The assembled multitude, ceremonially gathered, circles the royal threshold,

    casting around him a veil of majesty.

  16. High dignitaries vie with one another in its lofty precincts,

    guarding the curtains and barring the doors.

  17. He is pleased, and sends them to one people as a blessing,

    or grows angry, and from him they become punishment for others—

  18. until, when an appointed hour gathers the Caesars,

    God sends forth His decree, and it sweeps onward.

  19. When His army raids the kingdoms,

    it takes the thrones and their occupants as spoils.

  20. At every moment I behold a sign from your Lord,

    admonishing subjects and restraining masters.

  21. Armies grow tyrannical; but when their might collides,

    He routs the armies and destroys the allied hosts.

  22. And when, from on high, He assails the proud peaks of strongholds,

    they scatter like dust along the pathway of the winds.

  23. Indeed, He who made time itself a teacher

    made events a book for humankind.

  24. Yet humankind is so wanting in reason that equal

    in ignorance are those who witnessed the warnings and those who were absent.

  25. Genius in life belongs to a nation

    that gives birth to minds and begets discerning intellects:

  26. among them every mighty, indomitable rebel

    who rises above calamities, grappling and springing;

  27. and every keen, blazing mind whose sharp resolve reveals

    a meteor amid the darkness of affairs;

  28. and every revealer of mysteries who creeps into their lairs

    and bores passageways toward their secrets.

  29. The spoils of peoples fall to whoever wields against them

    the battle-ready claw and fang of knowledge.

  30. Knowledge—when lions guard its realm—

    is a realm mightier in sanctuary and more unassailable in its forest.

  31. Range through the eastern lands: will you encounter anyone denying this?

    Traverse the western lands: will you see anyone in doubt?

  32. Have you ever seen one who grasped life as it deserves,

    strove for it as true men strive, and then failed?

  33. Muster for your people, if you contemplate a campaign,

    the armies of knowledge, and mobilize the arts and letters.

Sol 5.6