Sol 6.1

  1. O faithful free men of Egypt, peace

    To you, and an enduring pledge and bond of honor.

  2. You have left the prison where, for you,

    The days numbered as many as your noble deeds.

  3. Return like an Indian-steel sword honed by a polisher,

    In resolve, and like the lion returning to his thicket.

  4. The adversary demanded money from you as ransom,

    And souls and bodies are your ransom.

  5. The freedom of peoples is not a commodity

    That peoples buy and sell.

  6. And had you agreed to buy it with gold,

    These pyramids would have turned to gold.

  7. Your release is your adversary's acknowledgment

    Of your right—not a pardon, nor a favor.

  8. It was obstinate denial, but before you it has become

    Compliance on his part and surrender.

  9. Will he now gain from you by bargaining

    What he failed to gain before, when pressing his demand?

  10. And may honor be bargained over, even if

    A free man were to spend his life in flames?

  11. It is enough for the struggler to spend the night while his kindness

    To his kin counts as sins in his enemy's eyes.

  12. Does he deny the manifest right and claim

    What neither law nor order has sanctioned?

  13. And forbid plain speech through sophistry,

    While all his hands have earned is unlawful?

  14. The intercessors' pleas for you did not match

    The rebuke and censure of the oppressor by those who took stock.

  15. Your deliverance gladdened the companions, as though they

    Had returned to their homelands and settled there.

  16. And as though the multitudes had met and been gathered

    In unity, and a goal and aspiration had been fulfilled.

  17. How fine a reward your deliverance is for Egypt's people,

    After they prayed and fasted for Egypt!

  18. A festival for which Egypt's banners flutter,

    And another, after it, will have its banners.

  19. The noblest aims and aspirations are those in which

    Blood, tears, and speech are ennobled.

  20. And when souls are alone with their faith,

    They come to find pain among their pleasures.

  21. A homeland saved by the struggle of noble men

    And the prowess of heroes will not be oppressed.

  22. It apportioned duties among them, so evenly matched

    Were their burdens, and equal were their shares.

  23. Your country has indeed reaped some of the fruits,

    And onward to fulfillment through perseverance and bold action.

  24. Right is what Heaven has decreed for you,

    Not what a cannon and a sword have decreed.

  25. O, how welcome the peace at hand, followed by

    A pact as the homeland wished, and concord.

  26. Certainty united both sides in agreement,

    And rancor and illusions were dispelled.

Sol 6.1