Sol 6.1

  1. Tend the realm, its nearest reaches and its farthest.

    And extend the fullest, most enduring governance.

  2. And witness the people's sincere love as they proclaim it

    In what you see, encounter, and approve.

  3. And explain to them the paths of what you undertake,

    To its fullest reach, as they desire, and its ultimate outcome.

  4. And carry to the countryside, in its richest seasons,

    The exalted king's greeting and his bounty.

  5. Every district has a claim upon you, and you have

    Remembered the villages' claim, honoring it with kindness.

  6. And you visited the farmer in his field to honor him,

    So prosperity, kindness, and prestige visited him.

  7. You ate of his plain and simple fare—how

    Delicious a meal it was to you, and how appetizing!

  8. And from the water surrounding him you drank

    The pure honey of bliss, or its intoxicating wine.

  9. In your high station, this is your humility toward him;

    And through you his face is radiant and he is proud.

  10. He is accustomed to the sun, finding in its rays

    And in the pure, open air his life.

  11. He is sound in body and mind in life, so it does not

    Matter to him whether his home is in a palace or a hut.

  12. Self-restrained, he disdains the world's finery,

    And his world lies in the hoe and the plow.

  13. He lends his hand to the homeland, cultivating it; and when

    It calls on a day of terror, he answers with his life.

  14. And sometimes he calls down rain upon it when

    The Nile's stream has not flowed through the valley.

  15. His constitution complains of neither heat nor cold,

    So, in his surroundings, his summer is like his winter.

  16. And whoever bears a burden with hope in it

    Benefits from all he encounters upon the earth.

  17. O servant of the people in their highest ministry,

    Through guidance whose decrees God has ordained.

  18. Noble as they are, they sought your aid, and you sought theirs,

    In the manner of one strengthening his right hand with his left.

  19. And you came to my spacious, fertile province, and among

    Its finest amenities is what it longed for.

  20. And walked among its farming sons at midmorning,

    As though they were your equals and your like.

  21. So if you have laid a foundation of stone today,

    Then its edifice is for treasures and blessings.

  22. Their land praised you as its people did,

    And lands have mouths, just as people do.

  23. And my heart saw the cavalcade as it drew near

    To me, so my heart accompanied it and kept pace with it.

  24. If the province's poet did not come to you,

    His whispers and remembrance reached your tour's route.

  25. He offers you radiance from his praises,

    Filling all time, and fragrance from his virtues.

  26. But he could not travel a stage to meet you,

    While bodily illness walks through what remains of him.

  27. A lover's excuse: his ardent longing spurred him

    Toward his beloved, but his legs could not carry him.

  28. And indeed, your beneficence toward my people and my homeland

    Is the best medicine for my ailments, and the most curative.

Sol 6.1