Sol 6

  1. O star who traveled through every constellation,

    Are you content to rest in this tomb?

  2. And warrior who struck out through every valley,

    But for death, you would never have stumbled.

  3. You once raced through the sky and through thought,

    And now the earth is your limit and end.

  4. You strove, surrounded by a band you awakened,

    Who came to see your aim and aspirations.

  5. Each was a free man whose heart could not rest

    Until his Egypt could rival other lands.

  6. You bore the people's burden alone for them,

    Complaining neither of toil nor of weakness.

  7. You exhausted yourself while they rested, after

    They entrusted their home and country to you.

  8. They wept in sleep, and you stirred to console them;

    They called you at night, and you answered by day.

  9. You taught them to lift their heads in expectation,

    And they gathered their hearing and sight.

  10. You extended the means of hope far ahead,

    And lived your days to their utmost.

  11. The world has known no commissioned prophet

    At such a young age, nor seen such righteous men.

  12. Your virtues, like your face, were a paradise

    Filling souls, while your heart was fire.

  13. You did not die grieving over a resolve that failed

    Or a scene in Egypt hidden from your sight.

  14. What wore you down was the loss of one

    Who gave you love and shared secrets with you.

  15. You kept urging loyalty and its people

    Until, in devotion, you died its martyr.

  16. A mercy surpassed even that courage;

    Had it reached the lofty mountain, it would have crumbled.

  17. Those alert to your loss fell fainting,

    And heedless, drunken people came to their senses.

  18. Alas for you: you have departed today without

    Seeing the fruit of what you planted in the land.

  19. The Nile's sweet, cool water waters it;

    Today, tears water it in torrents.

  20. Alas, Yathrib never welcomed you as her guest,

    Her eloquent, abundant speaker.

  21. You would exhort the pilgrims, uniting and reconciling,

    And bring hopes and thoughts together.

  22. You would circle the honored tomb, calling out,

    And your voice would stir Hashim and Nizar.

  23. Alas for you: you never went to check on

    Egypt's bewildered brethren in India.

  24. Alas, you never brought from Japan what

    Would give the country civilization and prosperity.

  25. You meant to travel; had you been able,

    You would have brought Egypt great allies

  26. And joined those who had gone before with a nation

    Wronged and following in their footsteps.

  27. Had your life been as long as even part of what you hoped

    And strove for Egypt, it would have filled lifetimes.

  28. Would that Egypt could ransom you with one of her ministers

    Who has not lifted the burdens from her people.

  29. Woe to those who stayed away from a gathering

    Around which angels walked in reverence.

  30. Do they turn away out of pride and arrogance,

    Or hold back from awe and caution?

  31. Why did they not see the prince's grief and his act,

    His approval of what you wished, an acknowledgment?

  32. On what other day as momentous as yours

    Does a wrongdoer weep for his sin and seek forgiveness?

  33. You possessed no throne and shining crown,

    Nor were you a knight wearing a sharp sword.

  34. You were only a voice crying out among a people,

    Calling on the brave and the free.

  35. You were only a son to every pious woman,

    And a chosen brother to every young woman.

  36. Old men and young men mourn you, just as

    Women and maidens mourn your purity.

  37. Your bier, with all the people around it, seemed

    A ship cleaving the surging, abundant sea.

  38. Their breaths and tears, amid the calamity of your loss,

    Seemed rainstorms and a whirlwind.

  39. O leader of heroes, here is your mighty

    Army; look upon your mighty army.

  40. Their banners are lowered, as though they were

    Flocks of birds that had lost their nests.

  41. A day like the Day of Gathering brought them together; how often

    You opened a wide field for their aspirations.

  42. Though they weep for you, you wept for them when they were

    Strangers in their own homeland and captives.

  43. And if they carry you on their heads, you had

    Raised them above the stars in pride.

  44. And noble, distinguished mourners did not

    Weep for you until they angered the tyrant.

  45. In their grief, he refused to accept their excuses,

    Though they accepted excuses in the face of his anger.

  46. He rants and fumes, resentful and burning

    With rage; had he weighed matters, he would have shown restraint.

  47. Do they fear his fetters and limits,

    Even if mountains and seas lay between them and you?

  48. These are feelings no hand can resist;

    Whoever resists the current takes a reckless risk.

  49. Without you, events would not have revealed among us one loyal

    To his country, nor one who betrayed it.

  50. They went their way and you yours; among us your path was clearest,

    Your standing and banner the noblest.

  51. They wavered at times and whispered at others,

    While you went on calling openly for evacuation.

  52. You stood prominently amid the conflicts,

    Recognizing those who fled and those who charged.

  53. Though you mocked the hypocrite once,

    You grieved for the coward many times.

  54. Why have those who failed you, when you most

    Hoped for a supporter, now become supporters?

  55. Have they learned what is right today, or have they come as

    They left, trading in every kind of politics?

  56. They felt safe from your companions while you lived, but now

    After your death they fear a rising of those companions.

  57. And though some sought comfort in gloating,

    They could not bring themselves to show it.

  58. Perhaps tears can heal the grieving person,

    While the envious gloater complains of having to hide his feelings.

  59. You troubled them alive and dead, and your foes

    Have never ceased to harm their own souls.

  60. Your enemies are not Egyptians, even if

    You and they were sharply estranged.

  61. The enemies are those who divide Egypt's leaders

    And scatter them to right and left.

  62. Had they known your illness was fatal,

    They would have come to you like pure angels.

  63. Her enemies may erase their offense, but nothing

    Can erase the shame of her own hypocrites.

  64. You called Egypt, her Nile, and her Upper Egypt to witness your greatness,

    Along with her plants and stones.

  65. You held her sacred, as though, beside her people, all other

    Peoples were nothing, or beside her river, all other rivers.

  66. You opened her to all but the combatant, gathering

    Within her God's lands and peoples.

  67. You prevailed over every tyrant and did not

    Leave her any vengeance to seek against aggressors.

  68. You made her safe after they had bared

    Their fangs and claws at her guardians.

  69. They called you fierce in battle; I told them,

    One faces danger according to the prey.

  70. If you benefit the country, that is reason enough

    For your enemies to call you harmful.

  71. Would we stir up war in the land, when you are the one who

    Kept the racers from raising dust?

  72. They lied to kingdoms and peoples through incitement and

    Provocation, opinions, and reports.

  73. They imagined that loyalty to the sultan meant setting

    Upon anyone who sought the land and visited it.

  74. Do they deny his authority over us,

    Or fail to know the bonds of kinship and neighborliness?

  75. They fear the Turkish army while it stays in camp,

    And dread the army wherever it marches.

  76. If it repels an aggressor and reassures someone afraid

    Who seeks help, they say it attacked and raided.

  77. And if they could divide us,

    They would forbid us to be loyal and feel protective zeal.

  78. What is wrong with them? They are guests in the house, yet no sooner

    Had they entered than they claimed the house as theirs.

  79. With calamities pressing upon us, it was hard

    To guard our honor, but for the caliphate.

  80. If fragments of their souls had not flowed away, they would have built

    From them a statue and memorial to you.

  81. One has not died when a nation inherits his hopes

    And continues along his path.

  82. May He keep her free through my verses,

    He who directs judgments and destinies.

Sol 6