Sol 6.1

  1. Come, come, leaders of the people, and listen

    to the admonitions of the distraught, anguished warner.

  2. I stayed away from you amid many adversities,

    and my absence was neither deliberate nor chosen.

  3. And I do not know which course of yours

    to follow with you, nor which stance.

  4. I did not weep for this year's dead among you, for I

    poured my tears over the living, and they do not suffice.

  5. And I saw only brothers in their homes

    turn against one another before the watcher poised to pounce.

  6. In discord you find no reformer,

    nor in accord do you find anyone fair.

  7. And every faction seeks rule according to whim,

    and whoever follows whim's dictates acts arbitrarily.

  8. This one is hostile to the man who holds power instead of him,

    and this one takes satisfaction in the ousted man's dismissal.

  9. And you have no resources beyond standing

    at a grave, or giving a speech at a feast.

  10. And what is the constitution worth, with discord among you,

    if it does not unite your ranks and reconcile you?

  11. Tales of strife around you followed one another,

    finding only one alarm-monger after another.

  12. And the evidence supporting the claims came, yet it was

    nothing but suspicions in an ornate setting.

  13. Do you hope that the people, tormented as they are,

    will welcome the deluded one among you and honor him?

  14. And you seek to have the people overseen by your own,

    though today you deserve an overseer more than they do.

Sol 6.1