Sol 5.6

  1. O house of leadership and parties, we once had

    a cause with you—and we squandered its hopes.

  2. Do you remember when a rising generation came to you—

    rich, with souls ready to give themselves as ransom for her?

  3. She longed to find one day a brother she could trust

    among you, one who would aid her unstintingly with kindness and protect her.

  4. Her guardian was neither worthy nor pure of soul,

    nor was her keeper proud, fiercely jealous of honor.

  5. She gained nothing but rancors, which were kindled

    across the land by leaders who kept fanning them.

  6. They cared nothing what they cast upon those fires as fuel,

    nor which of the people’s noblest they hurled into them.

  7. A cause they cast aside after it was killed—

    what harm, had they opened a grave to bury it?

Sol 5.6