Sol 5.6

  1. In his hostility, Baring treated us to

    words strange in form and cutting in their edge.

  2. He reviled Ismail before his son,

    and, through his grandfather, reviled the country’s sovereign.

  3. This, after he had filled his report at length

    with spite-born slurs against the faith.

  4. He denied the sun itself, yet praised

    one forever immersed in his scheming.

  5. He claimed the Nile was an overflow of his bounty,

    and that today’s progress sprang from his resources;

  6. that he—with justice for his lamp—

    had set the country right during his tenure.

  7. We said, “We believe you—then is this how

    the sword of truth leaps from its sheath?”

  8. Yet one endowed with wisdom,

    and faithful to the covenant of his promise,

  9. does not flaunt his sway over a nation

    that sees happiness attained in his absence.

  10. Some said his intention had been

    nothing but sheer jest in his reply.

  11. I said, “If he was joking at our expense,

    then this jest was no product of his own wit.”

Sol 5.6