Sol 6.1

  1. All-conquering fate has exhausted your resolve,

    and fickle time has folded your page.

  2. Have you seen how it surprises the frontrunner at

    his finish lines, and cuts off the one poised to leap?

  3. Have you forgotten Egypt's ordeal in her Sudan,

    in the days when the army wandered there in torment?

  4. You neglected it; only when they slaughtered it

    did your heart become a blazing ember.

  5. And you kept speaking of avenging Gordon, until

    the claim's moment came, and the demand's time arrived.

  6. And you struck with the force of a pursuing conqueror,

    to whom the pursued conqueror comes.

  7. And you slaughtered the peoples with an avenger's savagery,

    who neither guards against blame nor flinches.

  8. The Egyptian had scarcely thought of their spoils

    before the Egyptian himself became part of what you plunder.

  9. And you kept appearing in the trappings of one devoted

    to the people, concealing and veiling what you had resolved.

  10. You beguiled them for a time; they did not look around

    until your fang and claw were sunk into them.

  11. Were it not for a fearful ministry's submission,

    you would have found no firm footing in politics.

  12. Are you among us a conqueror or an heir,

    or a supreme guardian and a nearer neighbor?

  13. Or are you among us a reformer volunteering

    for good, or an uprooter who leaves nothing behind?

  14. Does Caesar bestow a constitution on his people,

    while you stand among us, tyrannizing and spreading fear?

  15. Is Egypt more deserving of mercy, or a homeland

    clothed and dyed with your people's blood?

  16. What has he prepared for Egypt's people, the one who believes

    that the foreigner is more entitled to rule Egypt?

  17. Do you strive to prolong your stay among them,

    and say, 'They have not yet learned or been refined'?

  18. If she has grown fertile or prosperous, it is through her people;

    and through her Nile the country grows wealthy and fertile.

  19. And they are the sons of her heroes and defenders;

    will you begrudge them distinction?

  20. Or will you seal their hearts and minds,

    after they have memorized the lessons and gained experience?

  21. You made their guests partners in their homelands,

    and granted them in Egypt what must not be granted.

  22. And you ended your tenure with what set trembling

    the pillars of Mecca, and made Yathrib seek refuge.

  23. And a people heaved a sigh of relief, bearing

    a grief that cramps even the widest expanse.

  24. We spoke, and you spoke; which of us is the hostile one, the

    bully, the tyrant, the intractable one?

  25. What have you gained as you depart from us,

    except coldness—and a miserable gain it is!

  26. If our absence from a ceremony was a sin

    on farewell day, the sinner is not one of us.

  27. What harm would it have done us had you remained courteous,

    until you left us, still beloved?

  28. Did you claim that your rule would endure forever

    among Egypt's people, as Egypt endures—and suppose it so?

  29. And you dishonor their religion and deny their throne

    and their banner, yet want them not to grow angry.

  30. And you insult them throughout your stay among them,

    yet wish them to be polite after your dismissal.

  31. Your party kept exalting you in satisfaction

    and anger, until they deified you and were punished.

  32. Welcome to the newcomer! Would that we,

    like other people, could rejoice in the newcomer and be glad!

  33. You lived among us for a time, gentle and good;

    so return as you are—the gentle and good one.

  34. Were it not for fear that you would call it gloating

    over the one who resigned, the procession would have hastened to you.

  35. Will you follow the old one's track, persisting,

    or are you commanded to do what you deem necessary?

  36. And will your office increase your compassion—the office that

    you were raised to—or will the office make you vain?

  37. And every day has its state, and every

    affair its newness, and every generation its aim.

  38. Today Egypt is not what she was yesterday:

    resolves strive hard, and a watcher waits alert.

  39. Do not obstruct her current, for it may well

    flood the country while you are feeble and exhausted.

  40. And if you scowl at her, she will refuse oppression; but if

    you treat her well, the hardest temper will soften for you.

  41. And stronger than the armored warrior's sword and fire

    is a pen that debates, or a tongue that orates.

  42. And an army may indeed be turned back in force, but

    a sobbing sufferer's feeling cannot be driven back.

  43. And secrecy is easier than fettering a thought

    and restraining tongues that speak clearly and express themselves.

  44. And our pursuit of Egypt's liberation is instinctive;

    in it, the novice and the trained are alike.

  45. Be among us, like anyone else, a contented guest,

    and life will become serene and sweet for us and him.

  46. Let no beguiling flatterer deceive you—

    choking on vile news and wavering.

  47. For the East, however strong your resolve, remains the East,

    and the West, however far your prudence extends, remains the West.

Sol 6.1