Sol 6

  1. O man of letters of the world, Egypt greets you.

    The bond of merit among the meritorious is steadfast.

  2. Your benefit to people calls for thanks to you,

    And thanks are slight beside that benefit.

  3. Every age, if high distinction offered it a choice,

    Would wish that it were your age.

  4. How fine, among the halls of glory, is an era

    That lacks no kind of honor:

  5. The era of the sun of kings, adorned with brilliant stars;

    And you, among those stars, are a full moon.

  6. Ah, Molière, what reader of a book

    Has not had his crookedness straightened by a book of yours?

  7. What listener who lends an ear to eloquence

    Has not felt the intoxication of your expression?

  8. What watcher, looking toward the figures you portray,

    Has not felt the enchantment of your art?

  9. All that is in life, in feeling and in thought,

    Is feeling and thought within your heart and tongue.

  10. You have a soul that seems to be every soul,

    And what is hidden seems plain to you.

  11. Every branch of knowledge seems to be yours;

    Every matter seems familiar to you.

  12. No secret is concealed from you, even one

    That a heart might hide in its depths.

  13. You have the eye of an eagle, looking from on

    High; if you gaze into the deep, no secret remains.

  14. You have discerned what is true and what

    Is false, and made it clear; your judgment is free.

  15. You seek to set right in people what

    Troubled instincts have spoiled within them.

  16. We describe a blemish, laughing at it, in beautiful

    Words: it brings tears even as it delights.

  17. Long ago, the medicine most welcome to the

    Sick was one that made bitter things taste sweet.

  18. Whoever speaks familiarly of what he reproaches in people

    Makes easier the correction of what is difficult.

  19. People are just as you describe them, and among them

    Are follies and faults that cause harm.

  20. You knew them better, and so were more

    Merciful to them: how often an excuse lies behind a stumble.

  21. It is fine, in warding harm away from them,

    To choose a course that does no harm.

  22. For harshness can alienate someone if you do not

    Speak gently in counsel, and so he persists.

  23. Hardships refined your nature and purified

    The heart’s substance, pure as light.

  24. People dealt you wrongs, yet no wrong ever drove you

    To do harm in return.

  25. And as your own suffering grew, so too grew

    Your kindness and goodness toward those who suffer.

  26. You remained a guide to people by the better way,

    Never turning aside, with your purpose held within.

  27. You did not fall short, nor did a mighty kingdom

    Or a palace keep you from what you sought.

  28. You go forth always; for evil there is defeat,

    And for good, victory in the end.

  29. If you compose words in verse, their delicacy

    And grace and ease make them prose.

  30. Or if you write words in prose, their delight

    And exquisite wit make them poetry.

  31. Your speech is a pearl beyond price;

    Whoever called you a sea did not exaggerate.

  32. And you have splendid works of every kind;

    Their excellence can scarcely be counted.

  33. O France, your children in learning and art

    Are suns and bright stars in the sky of intellect.

  34. O France, friend of the East, endure,

    And may your glory keep its radiant face.

Sol 6