Sol 6.1

  1. The trust of rule calls you and calls me,

    And nothing but truth pleases you and pleases me.

  2. Keepers of covenants, you kept your pledge, and there came

    The hands of the honored to meet the hands of the blessed.

  3. You joined them as brothers, and they

    In the immense duty are your equals on the scales.

  4. Each is a staunch helper to his companion against time,

    As Moses sought Aaron's help for it.

  5. Today your appointed hour of good has come to you,

    As I had expected, time after time.

  6. And if you have triumphed, you have indeed been for your nation

    The finest ransoms, sacrifices, and offerings.

  7. Rule is better entrusted to one who tends it and exercises it well

    Among his people, not to someone deluded and feeble-minded.

  8. Laws avail a people nothing

    If the justice of the laws finds no consciences to uphold it.

  9. People have discerned, as worldly fortune changes hands,

    The character of angels from the character of devils.

  10. A faction taunted you over rule, yet they themselves

    In ruling have never ceased to be among the madmen.

  11. They think that they themselves are the entire world,

    And all creation is in their hands and of their making.

  12. They want nothing but to have for themselves

    All offices and bureaus, without restraint.

  13. They forbid you what, for themselves, they

    Permit without religious law or faith.

  14. Their pages are empty of all benefit,

    Even though they have stretched out their massive headlines.

  15. They write, at whim, things that bring them shame,

    And dream of belief and assent.

  16. And the selfish pretenders' arsenal

    Is wild rumor, not truthful proof.

  17. They leave no burning grudge in their hearts unquenched,

    And in their bellies lies the venom of serpents.

  18. You grew weary of their company after they tampered

    With every hidden secret of the truest companions.

  19. And they monopolized the homeland's trusts and destroyed

    Within it all that was safeguarded and stored.

  20. You left them to themselves only because

    You would not let them live the life of wolves.

  21. If some claim of theirs must remain,

    Then it is the claim of the ill-fated and wretched.

  22. And if, in their distress, they hold a conference,

    It is only for deception and downplaying.

  23. They soothe themselves with that marketplace,

    And seek relief through sweet singing and melody.

  24. And their feast and their season there have passed,

    And the feast offers no solace to the sorrowful.

  25. They have their excuses, now that none remains

    Of the palatable fare from those vessels.

  26. They have no way forward after the loss

    Of all power in their cries to stir or still.

  27. So deal with them with a reminder or a reproach,

    For today you command both might and gentleness.

  28. If they do well, they have their place among you,

    And their steps throughout the regions and arenas.

  29. And had they acted rightly, they would not have feared or grown angry,

    And all of you are good, well-regarded, and trusted.

  30. This is a thorny road to aggression,

    And that is another road to you, strewn with fragrant blooms.

  31. My people, is the Spaniards' calamity in your midst,

    Or is that the scourge of Japan and China?

  32. I am slain by your mutual enmity and division,

    And would that I had been among Palestine's slain.

  33. A free young man's death in battle is better than

    A free young man's death from sorrow and humiliation.

  34. Who will find me someone able to reconcile you,

    So that I see nothing but support and strengthening?

  35. Had I lived one day in a homeland other than mine,

    My eloquence and elucidation would have revived its dead.

Sol 6.1