Sol 6.1

  1. You go forth with the covenant of peace and return,

    And her destiny rests in what you will and do.

  2. Here is your banner, with the tall spears leveled;

    You offer a salute, and the keen swords gleam.

  3. And your army would almost take flight with ardor,

    Were it not tamed by nightingales warbling for you.

  4. The earth is lush and verdant for your return,

    And the air is radiant and fragrant with it.

  5. Cities have stretched their processions toward you;

    They had been pouring out their yearning and echoing it.

  6. The festival of struggle, together with your triumphant return,

    Is a tribute in which the land rejoices and is uplifted.

  7. And the noblest thing you encounter is reverent hearts

    Before your person's majesty, not submissively bowed necks.

  8. You visited thriving kingdoms, acquiring

    Their civilization for Egypt and gathering it.

  9. And your caravan was aided on departure, with blessings,

    By a destiny as obedient to your command as your people.

  10. Egypt, with her history, accompanied it around you,

    And the people welcomed the age and bade it farewell.

  11. If they honored you, their recompense was fully paid

    By generosity and free giving from what you possessed.

  12. And the chroniclers came with what eased consciences

    That had yearned for the chroniclers and sought refuge in them.

  13. They praise your kindness to loved ones and foes,

    While war only yesterday was crushing and rending them.

  14. Separation proved true; in it you tested secret hearts

    Of yearning souls, whom you refused to let suffer.

  15. There you renewed your health, which is health

    For the people, and the devoted heart found ease.

  16. And it was as though what you witnessed was seen

    By whoever yesterday read and heard about you.

  17. You embodied all the East in yourself, so the

    Aggressor yielded to it, and the haughty humbled himself.

  18. And you attained the best enjoyment your world affords,

    And began to aid your two nations and bring them joy.

  19. A duty you owed to Egypt, whose fulfillment was

    A means to what you intend and resolve for Egypt.

  20. Which king do you see possessing the might that

    Is yours, from which you grant what you wish and withhold?

  21. Your valley, which has attained its independence,

    Will settle for nothing short of its hopes' full reach.

  22. And when hearts unite in hope,

    Arms grow strong enough to carry mountains.

  23. And a covenant's record is not on the tongue,

    But is what the ribs enclose.

  24. And a person's surety before his age

    Is what that person does and sows within it.

  25. And one prepared for his destined right does not

    Advance at leisure, nor does he falter.

  26. Indeed, he who has wearied hearts contending with him

    Is prepared to meet what he expects.

  27. Does his might bend after what

    His blood and tears have attained?

  28. Devoted to the memory of his yesterday, confident

    In today, he looks ahead to tomorrow.

  29. You brought certainty to the quarters of a nation

    In which no place for doubt remained.

  30. You restore sound judgment to the angry,

    After they had lost sound judgment and squandered it.

  31. An equal's friendship for an equal—so there was no

    Hope for the people except in your kindness.

  32. They did not charge you with the covenant, attainable as it was,

    Except when you were thereby the mightiest and most exalted.

  33. And if they are solicitous for you, it is only that

    They are solicitous for a king who harms and benefits.

  34. And among their trials, lasting until

    An appointed term, are the four conditions upon Egypt.

  35. And if you guard against them, that is safety;

    And if the people take them lightly, they are the deathblow.

  36. If the valley deems grave the calamity that

    Befell it, in your hand lies the most effective consolation.

  37. And if a sun vanishes from the valley in the forenoon

    Of a day, you are Joshua to every sun.

  38. And though a hero has passed, whoever follows his example

    There through his memory is stronger and braver.

  39. He bequeathed to you love for Egypt and her people,

    The inheritance of the most devoted, which you increase and expand.

  40. Welcome to her adversary's friendship, if he does not

    Secretly bind and sever affection.

  41. He abandoned reproach and persisted in his excuses,

    As though taking refuge in you and seeking intercession.

  42. Egypt has never refused from one of strength

    An ally's covenant; and she is not deceived.

  43. Neither its breach nor its making is ever

    On earth a fate that cannot be resisted.

  44. Why does the lake not answer one who asks

    About what the adversary and the partisan reported?

  45. A report threatened one eager for his gains,

    And reached innocent ears, spreading terror.

  46. Do we dispute the matter with the old neighbor, or

    Complain to the new neighbor and implore him?

  47. And perhaps it is one of those false rumors

    Whose fabrication the slanderers prompted and used as a pretext.

  48. Neither does the Nile turn from its course, nor

    Are that mouth and the source diverted.

  49. Had its surroundings not destined it for Egypt,

    The storms would have had no place in it.

  50. Heaven's outpouring—it is never sold or bought

    On any day, while you measure it out and distribute it.

  51. You secured it behind the dams as treasure stores,

    And dealt justly as it branched into channels.

  52. You guaranteed settled lands their share of it,

    While the wilderness and barren waste await their portion.

  53. It is yours to give your two nations full care,

    And to your rule belongs a dominion none can wrest away.

  54. Can kingdoms rest from suffering

    For a day, while the cannon defies those who fire it?

  55. The wide earth has not grown too narrow for what

    It bears; and in the earth is what quenches thirst and satisfies hunger.

  56. The inheritance of righteous servants, and their immortality,

    And it is the spacious field, and it is the pasture.

  57. They knew life and delved deeply into it; had they

    Found something other than this world, they would have hastened to it.

  58. From the bounty of the freedom they enjoy

    Comes what they have gained from existence and created.

  59. Were it not for the people's emulating what is good in you,

    No law or lawgiver would have set them straight.

  60. Glory is assured; you lead them to it,

    And you mold them for diligence, imprinting it upon them.

  61. Today your overflowing generosity was matched, in

    Your valley, by your Nile, freely flowing and brimful.

  62. Your soul rejoiced in your two capitals, and equal were

    For you in both, the summer retreat and the spring abode.

  63. And the East awaits your visiting its lands,

    And the East is nearer than the rest, and more devoted.

  64. And it is as though your bounty, itself an appeal,

    Were an eloquent orator in every quarter.

  65. Those who labor have filled the land, and I,

    Among those who labor, am the self-denying, scrupulous one.

  66. It is enough for the homeland and the Nile that I am a ransom

    For them both; and enough for me is what I sip of it.

Sol 6.1