Sol 6

  1. The answer has come; proclaim it as peace.

    And approval has come; receive it with honor.

  2. Recite to the pyramids what they brought back,

    Egypt’s faithful delegates, steadfast as the pyramids.

  3. Water her pure soil with your tears of joy;

    Quench the soil’s thirst and burning need.

  4. Your diplomacy settled a dispute in which you

    Were most restrained in anger and reproach.

  5. The mighty adversary came, after his hard dealings,

    Giving and taking, bound by pledge and honor.

  6. Though able to do so, he chose gracious conduct;

    How often he went forth an eagle and became a lion.

  7. They offered gracious explanations until they nearly matched

    The generous forgiver in care and standing.

  8. They asked leave to shake your hands while

    The hands of calamity struck at others.

  9. They invited you to visit, and your statesmen visited

    Their eminent counterparts with clear proofs.

  10. And perhaps they will visit the country at length

    After having visited it only briefly.

  11. Welcome the friendship of the strong, for they

    Have become faithful to the strong one’s covenant.

  12. You began your address to them well; how fitting

    That you should end it just as well.

  13. They witnessed the hope in your hearts and waited

    Until they saw it was longing and love.

  14. They saw you purer in hopes and tears,

    In inclinations, feelings, and words.

  15. They read across your horizons and your faces

    These bright lines and figures.

  16. They saw that winning hearts was greater than

    Possessing bodies by force.

  17. Through kindness and their deeds they sought

    What fire and the sword could not achieve.

  18. Suspicions between Egypt and them disappeared;

    They had brought harm and sickness to both sides.

  19. It is enough that the stern, angry adversary

    Meets you cheerful and smiling.

  20. Today the country, honored, saw

    Its flag vie proudly with other flags.

  21. Your sky grew more sheltering, and your land

    Purer, with sweeter drink and food.

  22. He saw his hopes come true before his eyes

    Who yesterday had thought them dreams.

  23. An outcome for which you praised the long night journey

    And forgave the wrongs for its sake.

  24. Before Wilson, we had sought it, and we did not

    Carry a cannon or sword to obtain it.

  25. Before this, I did not know that among

    The ingredients of success were patience and pain.

  26. The East and Islam are preoccupied, and what

    You have gained brings comfort to the East and Islam.

  27. This is your share of good fortune; how deserving

    Iraq and Syria are of the same.

  28. Your intentions were sound, so you encountered

    Neither doubt nor confusion in your demand.

  29. You took your stand for right, and they saw

    Neither obstinacy nor surrender in you.

  30. You restored it to its rightful owners with a clear

    Argument, as neither a gift nor a favor.

  31. They fulfilled what they pledged and promised you

    While the world was filled with blood and flames.

  32. And once they trusted you, they permitted you

    To keep company with Arabs and non-Arabs.

  33. Perhaps the intimate words of a foreign friend

    Make a young man forget his maternal and paternal uncles.

  34. Bringing glad tidings and warnings, they opened

    Closed hearts and refined understanding.

  35. Their armies follow their convictions, just as

    Struggle follows revelation and inspiration.

  36. They fashioned an order for peoples they had overrun

    For a time, and laid down a system for peoples.

  37. He went to a far extreme

    Who broke a chain and disrupted an order.

  38. Had they fought on earth for a sixth year,

    They would have replaced mankind with another mankind.

  39. You freest of people, most able in speech

    When judgment is called for, and finest with pens.

  40. Here are their terms, set out in detail; they held

    No power to coerce or compel you.

  41. Egypt’s representatives brought them, leaving

    The critics free to reject or ratify.

  42. For the majority there is their approval; for those who refuse,

    There is the excuse of one who sought distant aims.

  43. There must be someone who doubts and someone who complains,

    From concern for what has come and a wish to complete it.

  44. Whoever among you has a clear right,

    Its guarantee lies in your holding authority over decisions.

  45. And if you receive a trusting person’s charge,

    Guarding it becomes your obligation.

  46. The Nile supplies the country; if it flowed

    Outside its valley, it would return as clouds.

  47. Brother trusted brother, seeing

    No harm or strife in their fair sharing.

  48. Take no share of it beyond your own;

    For God apportioned its water into shares.

  49. And if one day the parched were denied his share,

    It would be forbidden to the well-watered too.

  50. The people’s caution showed that tomorrow you will have

    Fuller satisfaction, better means, and a greater aim.

  51. And keeping the covenant guarantees that what

    You have attained will increase and endure.

  52. Rule belongs among the rights of peoples; we see

    No one fit to rule but the reformer who acts boldly.

  53. How honored Egypt will be as their ally tomorrow,

    And as an ally to whoever avoids and resists wronging her.

  54. If peoples exchange their fruits,

    Why should peoples fight? Why?

  55. The earth deserves to be a place of shared use

    And gardens for people, not thickets.

  56. Do you honor Egypt’s heroes for what

    They bore and did for Egypt with titles of honor?

  57. Today the truthful one who prayed

    And fasted for his noble homeland receives his reward.

  58. Egypt’s delegation is given medals and ranks;

    Each receives a rank and a medal.

  59. So call people to the sacred duty alone,

    Even if your voices differ around it.

  60. And take your share of a world that

    Has grown more contentious and crowded.

  61. Take from the days what is at hand,

    Stay watchful, and ask more of the days.

  62. O restored state and kingdom raised high,

    May what you won this year last through the ages.

  63. Your crown will become an ornament among crowns,

    And your people a leader among peoples.

  64. It will again have an army and a protecting fleet

    To defend peace and safeguard peoples.

  65. This is a conquest nobler in its deeds

    Than the conquests of Ramses and Ibrahim.

Sol 6