Sol 5.6

  1. Yet the great among their peoples are living histories,

    and every tale of theirs is of consequence.

  2. So I recall, to his credit, his splendid service, when

    loyalty’s summons called him to noble deeds.

  3. Has word reached you of a baffling affair

    with which they alarmed Egypt in years gone by?

  4. Had it not been for Ahmad’s vigilance, and masterminds

    of his stamp, it would have baffled even the great problem-solvers.

  5. O canal of the two seas, you startled the homeland

    with a grave event that drove all other business from mind.

  6. Your affair is the same, in Arabic or foreign speech,

    whether named al-Qanāh or called “canal.”

  7. Remain true to that ancient covenant; we have no longing

    for your waters’ abundance to pour forth wealth.

  8. Our forefathers squandered our rightful share:

    mankind drank twice, while we have yet to taste the first draught.

  9. They sold you at a ruinous loss, in folly; had they

    understood, they would not have sold guidance for error.

  10. And they denied us the kindness we owe our young—

    those ahead of their age, the future’s pledge.

  11. We have indeed taken warning from the past, and truly

    we fear the reckoning of God—and of the children.

  12. Across the ages there abides the memory of a fellowship,

    like an array of radiant stars, or a necklace of pearls.

  13. They mastered the canal’s equation and set straight

    their figures, like the supple, swaying shafts of spears.

  14. They preferred no good above the hope they cherished:

    to foil the plot of the treacherous deceiver.

  15. How far what the stewards of their affairs decree

    is from what brings our doom: one governor’s will alone!

  16. Then the people stirred—so ancient was its stillness

    that they had even dubbed it the arch-idler.

  17. And the first signs appeared of its awareness of its existence,

    and of its sense of its deadly stagnation.

Sol 5.6