Sol 6.1

  1. O brother of the young men whom I adopted,

    though I was only a maternal and paternal uncle.

  2. The loss of you is mine alone—not the loss

    of a father bereft of his son, nor a mother's loss.

  3. And an adult's weeping in bereavement

    is like a child's weeping in orphanhood.

  4. No sooner had the home escaped war's harm

    than time betrayed me in the safekeeping of my peace.

  5. Did fate strike you with a germ

    from the wind, or strike you with an arrow?

  6. And were they medicinal drugs with which the days

    came to you, or drugs of poison?

  7. If my old illness spares some part of me,

    my imaginings add to my new grief.

  8. I used to endure my body's torment; and today

    I endure the torment of my soul and body.

  9. Was it a dream by night, or knowledge by day—

    what happened? It is the worst of dreams and knowledge.

  10. And as though time were not satisfied with my patience

    under its injustice, it doubled the wrong done to me.

Sol 6.1