Sol 6

  1. Peace upon the enduring homeland,

    and blessings upon your day of gathering.

  2. Companions in life, and in life

    there is only the path sought by the pioneer.

  3. O neighbors of this quarter, whether raising

    the banner of hope or binding yourselves to it,

  4. you have borne a trust, with assurance

    from those who give orders and those who receive them.

  5. It is enough that we share one homeland

    and walk toward one hope.

  6. It is enough for me that I am a newcomer

    who welcomes every newcomer.

  7. My concern for you keeps me awake;

    how watchful and sleepless I am!

  8. I would give my very soul for the workers,

    along with all my new and inherited possessions.

  9. I see factions: one brother, driven away,

    suffers harm at the hands of another who drives him out.

  10. And at every moment, one descending

    from the heights fears one who is rising.

  11. And there are veiled claims from which we gain

    nothing but a flash and a thunderclap.

  12. What a temptation leadership is,

    even when it falls into a worshipper’s hands!

  13. How many seekers of power have been killed by it;

    I have seen no one abstain from power.

  14. Will they fight, though they are like birds

    for whom the hunter’s cage has grown too tight?

  15. We have lost the truth amid their disputes;

    do they not know the anguish of one who has lost?

  16. Does a young man intend a good deed

    and hope to achieve it by corrupt means?

  17. He goes on, ignorant of where the road ends:

    with an angel, or with a demon?

  18. He leaves a raging storm

    only to seek shelter in something trembling and unsteady.

  19. Each young man among you has his own opinion;

    but how far apart are the misleader and the seeker!

  20. Let the one who plants purity in your quarter

    prepare the means for the one who will reap.

  21. Will you leave the new, firmly established thing

    and return to what is bygone and extinct?

  22. How can you equate obscurity

    with the distinguished, discerning, upright man?

  23. Is one who thinks for himself

    like someone who follows an unfeeling stone?

  24. I testify before you to al-Khatib’s standing;

    the judgment rests with the witness.

  25. I choose him as your representative,

    faithful to the pledge and to those who made it.

  26. Even if it is said that he opposed the leader’s view,

    he is neither an obstacle nor one who turns aside.

  27. I condemn an opponent who acts recklessly,

    but welcome one who criticizes with courtesy.

  28. Would one who places truth above men

    fear the clamor of the spiteful?

  29. Who else among the troops charged forward for you

    with a leader’s wisdom?

  30. Even a courageous heart needs

    the strength of arm and hand.

  31. When a young man’s conscience is at ease,

    it carries him past the watcher’s stronghold.

  32. Have you forgotten his service in the year of struggle,

    which the striver’s resolve praises?

  33. And on the day when reckless Armenians acted unjustly,

    stirred up by the intrigues of plotters,

  34. he sought their goodwill and guarded against them,

    and they returned in peace with those returning.

  35. After his speech among you, is there

    any room for a spiteful fabricator?

  36. If he represents you as you wish,

    that is due to his abundant merit.

  37. I promised you that when

    you placed your hopes in him, I spoke with a promiser’s confidence.

  38. Al-Khatib’s persistence is assurance

    that he will uphold the sound, prevailing principle.

  39. His independent stance pleases the country

    before it pleases brother or father.

  40. His own convictions make him need no one to pay him

    for his struggle, nor anyone to praise him.

  41. If you pass him over for another,

    the deliberate wrongdoer will have no excuse.

  42. Time changes, but the country’s right

    neither perishes nor runs out.

  43. Tomorrow is the time of decision for reformers

    throughout the restless world.

  44. And I bring news of al-Khatib’s victory,

    as representative of your noble quarter.

Sol 6