Sol 6.1

  1. We left the land of Egypt to every dolt

    whose armspan falls short of my forearm.

  2. Souls that lofty honors do not befit,

    and characters too narrow for noble endeavors.

  3. If they stumble into deeds of honor, these are followed

    by a number of successive misdeeds.

  4. I dwelt there; among the ordeals of the nights

    is the dwelling of lions in the shelter of hyenas.

  5. I say, now they are far away: 'Away with them, and may ruin come

    to the worst of creatures in the worst of lands!'

  6. And how much nobility I left behind, dishonored

    in its courtyard, and how much baseness obeyed;

  7. and wealth with its frontier guarded, protected

    on its flanks, and honor squandered;

  8. and bodies fattened and sated,

    and pedigrees emaciated and hungry;

  9. and deficiency peculiar to its grandees,

    and ignorance widespread among its lesser folk.

  10. Is it because your secrets lay exposed overnight, and

    your misdeeds were displayed upon a height,

  11. that you made it our fault that we heard,

    though ears are only for hearing?

  12. As though parting were decreed for us,

    so nothing remains but meeting and farewell.

Sol 6.1