Sol 6.1

  1. Your land lay barren in your absence.

    So return to it, hopeful and hoped for:

  2. in sickness, a remedy; in adversity, a solace;

    in fear, safety; in stumbling, one who lifts us up.

  3. Were it not for your striving as you traveled and roamed,

    it would have complained to you of your wandering and departure.

  4. You go forth in the morning, a staunch, devoted follower of the caliph,

    and return in the evening, absorbed in lofty aspirations.

  5. Is it possible, after you spoke with him and saw him

    joyful, that his enemies deem him ill?

  6. Suppose he had been ill for days—was not

    the meeting proof of recovery?

  7. Tell the subjects how he secured his throne

    in the two Easts and built the fleet.

  8. And counsel people who claim there is evil in

    restoring the Nile to the Euphrates.

  9. They spread rumors of war, hastening toward it,

    and expected destruction and wholesale slaughter.

  10. And they took charge of the defensive equipment, as though

    your land had come to be entrusted to them.

  11. And sought support from the two surging seas, that they might part

    hearts from desire and stand between them.

  12. They said, 'He sought our help against his sultan,

    lest he stretch a far-reaching hand toward him.'

  13. Do you seek rescue from your wearisome guest against

    your own people and the lord with the mightiest following?

  14. And would the Turks unsheathe the sword for a battle

    that would not profit the victors a thread's worth?

  15. If no ship brings them to you,

    they would make their bridges of spears and blades.

  16. Is there in concord and cooperation any strife

    that ravages a neighbor or harms a guest?

  17. What ails the bestower of safety—as he claimed to be—

    that he now sees a ghoul in every mountain pass?

  18. Indeed, he would persist in excess, were he to see

    his own people spreading rumors and sowing alarm,

  19. or were he safe from a band who scowled at him—

    upright witnesses who reject obstinacy—

  20. and from a cultured Orientalist, a volunteer,

    watchful, a close friend to the secure land.

  21. And he is a generous-hearted man of words; if only he

    could, like others, be a man of action.

  22. Were it not for the steadfast trusting in tomorrow,

    they would wish to return to the nights of old.

  23. They did not excuse an experienced government when unjust,

    though they had so often excused an ignorant tyrant.

  24. And their feeling their wounds is a sign of life;

    they complain until those wounds cease and vanish.

  25. And their restless wandering in their night is a sign of strength,

    as they grope for your burnished day.

  26. And perhaps they will fill the land with festivals,

    after having filled the land with wailing.

  27. They do not seek refuge with a stranger, even if they see

    a kinsman's sword unsheathed against them.

  28. God has disciplined us through the greatest of His creatures

    in deeds, and the most commanding in word throughout the kingdoms.

  29. They and we differ in laws,

    and in natures, inclinations, and origins.

  30. Entrust them to mighty Time; perhaps we

    shall not be denied change and transformation.

  31. And when you resolve to lead us toward our independence,

    then prudence lies in not seeking haste.

  32. And our deliverance is impossible unless we are

    more advanced than they in spirit and intellect.

  33. And we have indeed aspired to it, heads held high;

    so raise this generation above all other generations.

  34. It is the ultimate goal of hope; varied are its paths.

    Blessed is whoever makes peace his path.

  35. How fine they are as they depart, and we see nothing

    but unbroken affection toward them.

  36. If they mention our obedience, we shall mention to them

    a momentous lesson that the land received.

Sol 6.1