Sol 6.1

  1. By your justice, benevolence, and might you rule,

    though great is what you face and what you undertake.

  2. You bore what humanity cannot bear even partly,

    and imposed on this soul what was not required.

  3. That oath of former days has indeed proved true,

    and this oath today is more faithful and nobler.

  4. You brought a boundary between a blessed age

    and an age gone by, hateful and reviled.

  5. You restore to the valley its trust, which

    you guarded, now stronger and more steadfast.

  6. Conquests of hearts, not conquests of fortresses,

    you have won; victory through judgment is greater.

  7. It is not the army's steel that you possess,

    but strong, disciplined resolve.

  8. You waited until the people lacked a deliverer,

    then you were the best to step forward to them.

  9. You proceeded without denying any worker's scope,

    and you bring affairs to fulfillment and completion.

  10. You are the builder of a spacious, stately house,

    and by dwelling in it you bestow favor upon Egypt.

  11. She came to you in her deputies and senators;

    you consult them on her welfare and speak with them.

  12. They are those who chose you, carrying out what you hoped for,

    and you choose them for what they hope for.

  13. Trustworthy, they safeguard you against a misstep,

    and you are their best guardian, guide, and protector.

  14. This is the day when all of time comes together,

    its keys cast to you and surrendered.

  15. On it the beloved king saw his place

    among the people, hopeful and discerning.

  16. Under the new covenant he met its guardians,

    who had affirmed the new covenant and made it firm.

  17. He delivered the throne speech, laying foundations

    for your rule, imparting it to you and inspiring you.

  18. You are his hand in his finest deeds,

    and his mouth in his finest words.

  19. Why, then, have the angry and envious stayed behind,

    when a feast and festive season have embraced both lands?

  20. Did they blind themselves to the horizons, or did the horizons disown them?

    It pained them to be humbled and deprived.

  21. They turned again to the decrees of fate, accusing them.

    Did fate command them to rebel, only to be defeated?

  22. Their claims dragged on; when they came to nothing,

    their claims against you, they appealed to you for redress.

  23. Do they complain of what time decrees, though they

    do themselves more harm and injustice than time does?

  24. They demand of it what is impossible for them,

    while inevitable destiny runs as you wish.

  25. They spent their night sleepless; when they could not attain

    their hopes, they slept by day to dream.

  26. Whenever they rallied for rule, their paths

    to it were harm, intrigue, falsehood, and blood.

  27. How many customs and laws they changed!

    How often, in arrogance, they permitted and forbade!

  28. They commit sin only to rule,

    and seek rule only to commit sin.

  29. Even if their earth and sky spoke to them

    words of rebuke, they would reinterpret them and obscure them.

  30. Whoever feigns ignorance to ward off what he hears,

    indeed, time's rod is an excellent interpreter.

  31. Was it a boycott or isolation that hid them away?

    And are these conferences, or banquets being prepared?

  32. Where are the stalwarts who bound

    their promises by yesterday's covenant and swore an oath?

  33. Those are the leader's heroes and his troops:

    ill-omened men, driven toward evil by one still more ill-omened.

  34. Raiders of streets they smashed and burned,

    not knowing what they burned and smashed.

  35. They turned against you; what, then, will you do for the king?

    But for their persistence, you would have turned a blind eye to them.

  36. The world lies before them; do they demand from

    your hands, by force, what you give generously?

  37. Those running behind you knew their own incapacity,

    but they deceive those who do not know.

  38. You bore their assaults against you and their crimes,

    while feeling pain for them over what they committed.

  39. Had they known even some misery, you would have excused them,

    but they made others miserable to live in comfort.

  40. As though the homeland, sovereignty, and people were among them

    common property, or an inheritance apportioned.

  41. You will meet them on the day of reckoning, and they

    are their own harshest satirists, bitterest foes, and sternest reproachers.

  42. You are not miserly in granting them life,

    yet hell is fitter for those who live to tyrannize.

  43. Had what they met from you been divided

    among all people, no criminal would have remained on earth.

  44. You left them to hasten their own fate,

    and all they have is speculative talk.

  45. They returned to the tyrant, seeking his compassion

    through those they had deceived, though he is hateful to them.

  46. Long have they stood at their adversary's doors,

    and one day they must tire and grow weary.

  47. Did they go for the valley's freedom, or its fetters?

    Did they seek its oppressor today, or its helper?

  48. It pains your free conscience to see

    your friend aiding tyrants, who remain what they are,

  49. and seeking vengeance for them against you, after

    you took vengeance for him upon them yesterday.

  50. One opposite is flattered by another as a pretext,

    and this one hides and conceals disgrace for that one.

  51. You tested both as opposites: this one stubbornly denies,

    and that one grieves over what has passed and regrets it.

  52. They united only to differ in desire;

    can a crow and an aged vulture ever be equals?

  53. The band is but a wing whose time for demolition has come,

    and its destroyer is that familiar companion, its repairer.

  54. The faults they hurled at one another are enough,

    when you establish the proofs against them.

  55. What ails the band's leader? After he fabricated

    against you what availed him nothing, he turned to abuse.

  56. He deliberately performs the forenoon prayer to scheme; but when alone

    with himself, he is obsessed and infatuated.

  57. Death walks behind him while he jests,

    and he laments the victims while serving drink and food.

  58. He does not care if he sees the Nile flowing back

    to its two sources, or al-Muqattam swaying.

  59. The homelands seek refuge in you, lest you restore him

    to govern them—chaos and crisis for all time.

  60. The dead may return, but never will return

    to the band its vanished era.

  61. You settled what lay between the prince and his uncle:

    their dispute, after it was thought impossible to settle.

  62. You reconciled both sides, and they praised

    you; the vexed one found relief.

  63. What you were granted by its giver

    is mightier and grander than yesterday's authority.

  64. You advanced with the constitution in Safar, just as

    Muharram, through you, advances with capable men.

  65. Your preparations today herald

    what the smiling future will bring.

  66. I am the record of good deeds, reckoning them

    immortal, and the poet who sings.

  67. I have no companion in this world but truth,

    and no gain in this world but renown.

Sol 6.1