Sol 5.6

  1. What a time—and what dreadful, overwhelming weather!

    The secret of its effect upon the soul stood revealed.

  2. We have seen whirlwinds in the sky,

    and on the earth a slain lord of exalted rank.

  3. What glory! For indeed my fiery wrath

    may rival the wrath of God, the Creator.

  4. Who has known me, and whom have I killed? By my life,

    this night of mine magnifies my worth.

  5. My killing toppled the throne of a lofty king,

    the foremost of twenty sovereigns in eminence:

  6. a king to whom all command reverted,

    with war and peace held in his hands;

  7. a king who bore the burdens of the burdened,

    whose equal will not appear among the living.

  8. And when he vanished from existence,

    everything swayed—even the deserts.

  9. No wonder: he was the axis of the inhabited world,

    through him safeguarded against calamities.

  10. Because I killed him—though he was the object of hope—

    these kingdoms will tremble with a mighty convulsion.

  11. If what we wrought has brought things to such a pass,

    it will bring those kingdoms to an earthquake.

  12. Europe, upon the donning of his mantle, will seek

    someone other than him who can hold everyone's condition in balance.

  13. Behold what God, in His wrath, has done to the earth.

    He said, “O earth, how have you become a wasteland?

  14. What volcano from the mountains of fire

    have you opened its mouth to take vengeance on civilization?”

  15. Then who was it that stirred the Christians,

    and roused the Spaniards and the Ottomans?

  16. Was it Suleiman, lord of that realm,

    or Clement, master of might and deadly force?

  17. Or did Doria of lofty rank appear,

    or the valiant emperor, Charles V?

  18. Or was it our prophet, Christ, lord of signs?

    For upon the earth he breaks the ordinary laws.

  19. What champion or prophet swept down

    and made the people exchange one creed for another?

  20. Whose hands, O earth, did you obey with all your might,

    that they shook you in a mere fraction of an hour?

  21. At this the earth, seething, answers:

    “This is Tripoli—this is the wonder!”

  22. So revel, hunchback—contemptible wretch—

    and boast; for the arrogance in you is perilous.

  23. How wondrous is the vengeance now running its course:

    it has shaken the universe—oh, the horror of the deed!

Sol 5.6