Sol 5.6

  1. Let that banner unfurl again after it was folded away.

    And let hope revive—a hope before which pain stumbles.

  2. No calamity is greater than that which dismayed the most steadfast among you.

    Yet I adjure you not to let your high resolve weaken.

  3. That is the banner in which they wrapped the leader;

    today our obligations to it have multiplied upon our necks.

  4. It has become still worthier of our reverence and sacrifice,

    since that eminent figure was enfolded within it.

  5. I see Egypt’s face beneath its radiant crest,

    hiding the sores of its eyelids, yet smiling.

  6. And I behold her heart amid its stars:

    her heart throbs proudly, with Saad portrayed upon it.

  7. Do not let the supreme sorrow exact its full toll

    from you, though all other sorrows are small beside it.

  8. That parting—if you behold the breach it wrought—has brought a happy

    outcome for Egypt; for others, the outcome is regret.

  9. Can Saad be dead while the people’s spirit endures,

    while counsel is united and the ranks are knit together?

  10. The emblem remains, and still we hear that voice,

    however varied the voices and the words.

  11. Indeed, the union of your strength after him is recompense

    for him through whose loss bereavement and orphanhood struck Egypt.

  12. Your devotion to him is devotion to yourselves:

    either existence in its fullest meaning, or nonexistence.

Sol 5.6