Sol 6.1

  1. O people of Egypt, what she suffers is anguish enough.

    Will the unity that shattered return to you?

  2. The times have grown grave, yet your disunity has not ceased.

    Indeed, what I feared from you has come to pass.

  3. Indeed, he who, faced with your former resistance, nearly

    retreated from you has persisted in his greed toward you.

  4. Can a heedless man within its bounds guard the house,

    misguided and ailing, complaining of pain?

  5. You sought the ultimate goal, yet its bane

    is to go forth divided or return in factions.

  6. Will your politics in the valley not be brought into harmony

    by a guide, as he reconciled individuals and the multitude?

  7. And whenever an eminent, discerning man among you rose

    to the ministry, you shouted around him in alarm.

  8. And whenever a trustworthy man among you sought it,

    you stirred up doubts and raged with strange innovations.

  9. Are the ministers appointed through him for the foe or for you?

    He retained those who once harmed her and those who helped.

  10. Your moderation and your excess toward her are not alike,

    nor is one who goes on inciting her like one who intercedes.

  11. Take pledges before God from him, and wait;

    perhaps he will prove the best at fulfilling and honoring them.

  12. Is there not in his past a reminder and a lesson,

    from what someone else saw of you and what he heard?

  13. He accepts your ministry as a duty he owes you,

    and does not accept it as a pasture and a grazing ground.

  14. It befits one whose nation has followed his counsel

    not to become a follower of an aggressor circling her.

  15. You have a watcher over him in his own conscience,

    if he finds no overseer or observer among you.

  16. The foe lay in wait, and his snares stretched

    toward your certainty, after what he had wrested away.

  17. Shall we leave the matter to the aggressor to direct,

    in every quarter, enacting rules and legislating?

  18. His leniency and his severity there have proved the same,

    just as those who defied him and those who submitted have fared the same.

  19. The dispute among you has dragged on, defenders of the realm;

    has it no one to settle it, after it has grown so wide?

  20. The sacrifices made for it were nearly in vain,

    and the high price that was paid nearly went to waste.

  21. All of you, surrender your right to that foe,

    or fight for it together, O parties of Egypt.

  22. What recourse has an unarmed, cheated man against a belligerent foe

    girded with fire and armored in steel?

  23. Your faith and certainty are your weapons today;

    and have you ever seen a believer submit to a tyrant?

  24. Does a man ask the Nile to water his crop,

    one of you, though he does not own the field he sowed?

  25. Obtain security from the world for yourselves

    before you ask it to quench your thirst and satisfy your hunger.

  26. Work together, and gather the means the task requires;

    how often has resolve made easy a task once beyond reach!

  27. Diminished honor will not satisfy a man of pride,

    even if he is content with a life of hardship.

  28. Where is he who brings your exile back to the valley

    from separation, and comforts the distraught, yearning one?

  29. And where is he who brought blessings to his nation

    and the throne, without boasting of what he did?

  30. Indeed, I heard an orator whose promise to you

    is a debt; perhaps satisfaction lies in what he urged and pursued.

  31. If no faction wins your unanimous assent, then you have

    within your consciences one who has made you equal and one who has united you.

  32. You will confound—if his counsel prevails

    among you—your adversary, after he has deceived you.

Sol 6.1