Sol 6.1

  1. Rule is yours, whether traveling or residing,

    And sovereignty is yours, in recent times and of old.

  2. Approach the two thrones, the two armies, and the

    Two lands, fair of face, as time itself advances.

  3. The experiences of events and separation have guaranteed

    That you will reach both goals, wise.

  4. Indeed, your smile on the day you returned reveals

    The news of deliverance and its hidden secret.

  5. And the sultan's greeting is proof

    That the outcomes bring no joy to opponents.

  6. Your palace rises above the Bosphorus, enchanting,

    And renders the corrupters' plotting fruitless.

  7. In it you embodied sonship and brotherhood,

    And fatherhood, maternal unclehood, and paternal unclehood.

  8. And you gave the Serbs your counsel, forbidding them

    To aid the defeated tyrant.

  9. We shall strike with them the Balkan rebel if

    He harms a loyal man and violates a sanctuary.

  10. You pleased the Imam in peace; often

    He called upon your forefathers, seeking the aid of mighty chiefs.

  11. The East remembers their deeds in the Hijaz,

    And the West remembers what befell the Greeks.

  12. My grief for Egypt's independence and its people—

    The grief of one who cares deeply, recalling what is lost.

  13. Why do I see its banners folded,

    Its soldiers unarmed, its fortresses mere ruins?

  14. For faith and country we fought our foes,

    Until we lost both faith and country.

  15. May I gain no blossom from it if it does not become

    Free again, nor breathe a breeze within it.

  16. And if the Nile does not flow in your name alone

    Throughout the valley, it flows poisoned.

  17. Morocco lies in the grasp of one mighty and powerful;

    It cannot regain its demolished edifice.

  18. He toys with it until it grows earnest; many a time

    Food, hard to digest, has killed the ravenous.

  19. Were it not for the souls' wounds that rouse them,

    We would not be safe from numbing and being lulled to sleep.

  20. One day I reproached them, and they said, 'An ingrate

    Who rejects reform and correction.'

  21. And I rejected their judgment, and they said, 'A schemer

    Who summons his reviled people to evil.'

  22. And they related a conflicting tale about you, but it neither

    Watered barren ground nor healed the wounded.

  23. They said, 'He disowns the defenders of his banner;

    He does not seek his supposed independence.'

  24. They banned hope and forbade it, yet they

    Will never have the power to ban or forbid.

  25. How often they pressured you to anger, yet found

    No harshness, nor did the flame reach dry tinder.

  26. And you stayed calm as they filled the land with fluttering banners,

    And lightning flashes, thunderbolts, and clouds.

  27. Are they the ones who make your Egypt's Nile gush forth,

    And grant it verdure and bliss?

  28. And can they replace your Egypt's sky with another,

    Or bring forth another earth besides this earth?

  29. My lord, you have illustrious men who, when

    Darkness deepens, are stars for Egypt.

  30. Egypt's noble sons, the leaders of its heroes,

    And those noble in upbringing and lineage.

  31. They have not become factions, but

    Political pretension has become apportioned spoils.

  32. This one yields, that one stands firm; and a petitioner

    Hopes, while a despairing man pours out his sorrows.

  33. He who yields is the strongest proof against

    Anyone who suspects us of rebellion and sinfulness.

  34. And he who stirred others did not raid; rather,

    The free man had tired of humiliation and coercion.

  35. The year of calamity had not passed before they distressed

    The heart of the deified one, who resigned, ailing.

  36. And the replacement came, approved in former days, the

    Hoped-for man, an honored guest in the land.

  37. Charged to treat Egypt gently and graciously;

    Let him not reckon anyone but you its leader.

  38. If you wish, it becomes a paradise for the subjects;

    Or, if you wish, a hell for tyrants.

  39. My lord, the one shot at has risen and caught the

    Shooter, and the oppressor fears the oppressed.

  40. They entrusted to you the hoped-for pardon after

    Fortune's vicissitudes had pronounced their inevitable decree.

  41. The shackles weighed heavily on the broken captive,

    So that you might be merciful to the broken captive.

  42. If the prisoner's release makes us forget his pain,

    We shall not forget a bone crumbling in the dust.

  43. We do not ask you to muster an army,

    Clamorous, and a proud, mighty fleet.

  44. We do indeed hope for guidance and direction,

    And for counsel, training, and education.

  45. This is the conquest nobler in its beginnings

    And consequences than Ibrahim's conquest.

  46. My lord, this is my burning zeal, and this

    Is my peaceful stance; yet I am not spared reproach.

  47. They said, 'He has gone to extremes.' I said, 'What fault has a man

    Who grieves and weeps for his trampled right?'

  48. He complains of an adversary among his enemies, just as

    He complains of and reproaches an adversary among his own kin.

  49. By God, were it not that they would say, 'Shattered are

    His hopes, and he has forsaken the struggle, weary,'

  50. I would have fallen silent like one choking on his own saliva,

    And left the owls to the desolate ruins.

  51. So preserve, throughout the land's length and breadth,

    The free-winged one who stirs it with song.

Sol 6.1