Sol 6.1

  1. Today is your day, radiant and spacious.

    So take your share in the valley, as is fitting.

  2. Every turn of events in Egypt has its appointed time,

    And no turn has been without a blessing for you.

  3. Your first ministry passed, white-stockinged,

    Bright-browed, and it was your means to the next.

  4. In your second term, you remain faithful to it,

    And in it, as in the first, wonders come from you.

  5. Your bearing rule amid straits and hardship

    Is like your plunging into war, with no escape from its terrors.

  6. You followed an upright path in it, and near came

    The distant to you; the thorny tangle grew easy.

  7. You honored every leader among his followers,

    Choosing and selecting him as a helper for yourself.

  8. You acknowledge the merit of those gone before,

    And are the resourceful champion of those yet to come.

  9. Politics in every age is nothing but

    A craft in which you are skilled and experienced.

  10. You trusted in Egypt's outcome, as did

    The dignified elders and noble youths.

  11. As though those hidden things had been revealed to them

    From destiny's decrees, and the veils had been rent for you.

  12. Your justice still needed their guides' counsel, despite

    These experiences, selflessness, and diligence.

  13. What you raise is their light of guidance

    Therein; what you carry is provision for the long road.

  14. After bringing them together, you united their judgment,

    So they became kin and companions.

  15. Love of the exalted king unites them,

    As a father unites his righteous sons.

  16. He praised you for your good deeds, and hastening came

    Titles and ranks to your station.

  17. A testimonial to you from him, not mere words,

    But from him to you, glory and honorable standing.

  18. In one hour you changed in a kingdom's affairs

    What ages could not change in them.

  19. After what you have already done, the people wait,

    Expectant of the great deeds you have resolved upon.

  20. Those public amenities among the things you safeguard—

    You raised them beyond all they counted and reckoned.

  21. You apportioned provisions among them in full,

    So what they ate and drank of them was wholesome.

  22. There was no commerce beyond what you planned,

    And no gain beyond what you determined.

  23. Each thing matches its counterpart in price and value,

    And the king's silver and gold fill the realm.

  24. Their buying and selling therein

    Of precious things is only part of what they have given.

  25. Goods are not dearer than their lives,

    And with those lives they go wherever you accompany them.

  26. The best thing that makes the world flourish is a transaction

    Dictated by circumstance, not by law or books.

  27. On God's path, no hardship has afflicted

    A soul, nor thirst there, nor hunger.

  28. People fought one another upon the earth, though it was theirs,

    Full of what they produced in it and what they brought.

  29. They devastate their homes with their own hands,

    And by nothing but their own hands were they struck by disaster.

  30. Why should one whom it sustains strive for supremacy there,

    When water and grass in its soil suffice him?

  31. Whoever finds no room in God's lands, inhabited

    And fertile, will find none in the desolate, ruined land.

  32. You raised before them an impregnable dam, and

    The two adversaries' terror and dread did not make it bend.

  33. You moved steadfastly among them; they neither pushed

    Your aim, ever, toward what you reject, nor pulled it astray.

  34. Both sides pride themselves on their armaments,

    And victory belongs to the side you supported.

  35. If some region is free from the stirrings of war

    For a day, alarmist rumors and clamor seize it.

  36. Your mighty ally is one who joins you in gain,

    Not one you follow into loss and destruction.

  37. If Egypt accompanies her allies in war,

    Her gain is a warning to aggressors, not plunder.

  38. If she seeks reinforcements for them from neighbors,

    Then the Turks, Persians, Afghans, and Arabs.

  39. Interests united them in their treaties,

    Before what religion and kinship require.

  40. Are these fortresses and troops upon your land, or

    The heavenly constellations and shooting stars?

  41. In the East's domain, a fortress for those seeking refuge in it,

    And in the West's protected lands, from it a roaring host.

  42. You drove back beyond the borders those lying in wait for it,

    After the ambushers had almost pounced.

  43. You were spared invading them with an army tomorrow by

    These messages and speeches from you today.

  44. And sometimes renewed warfare is prevented, even when

    The warning comes, by armaments and preparations for war.

  45. Better than a triumphant conqueror taking spoils

    In war is one who guards against it and avoids it.

  46. Whoever lacks the strength to reach his aim

    Will not be helped by deception and lies.

  47. Whoever seeks his purpose through force unjoined

    With judgment wastes both force and pursuit.

  48. If you guarantee your valley's safety, why should

    Steel and flame elsewhere concern it?

  49. Yet compassion may make it painful for the survivor

    To see mankind itself the fire and the firewood.

  50. Egypt is nobler in peace, if they make peace,

    And Egypt is mightier in war, if they wage war.

  51. After the striving to which you are devoted,

    Reward is due, and toil precedes rest.

  52. The best conquests are those by which you preserved peace,

    While the earth trembles and souls are plundered.

  53. You are the one at peace with fate because of what

    You have prepared, while the peoples of the earth are shaken.

  54. If one day blood must flow,

    Let that flowing blood be for dignity and right.

  55. I need only congratulate your rule in your valley

    On life lengthening and hopes drawing near.

  56. I immortalize the deeds of men through

    The passing nights, with no self-interest in them.

  57. And fill the earth with light from their praiseworthy deeds,

    Though I remain secluded in the countryside's corners.

  58. They walk the earth as righteous men, and from my writings

    Upon them are the fresh robes of immortality.

  59. I live in my homeland the life of a stranger, and if

    I am done with it, there is neither remembrance nor offspring.

  60. I have never grown angry for myself in a confrontation,

    But that anger has been for my country.

  61. I never went to any people with an excuse,

    Nor withheld amends from them when they reproached me.

Sol 6.1