Sol 6.1

  1. What you bear is a trust, O envoys.

    The means and paths lie open to you.

  2. Go as you wish, for the people have entrusted

    The matter to you, with hope bound to it.

  3. The message of the Nile and the pyramids is awaited

    By the earth's kingdoms and states throughout the ages.

  4. You have chosen yourselves to vindicate the right;

    And how fine if word and deed hit the mark!

  5. Indeed, those who gave yesterday what was asked of them

    Are today most entitled to reclaim what they gave.

  6. And can men be blamed for ignorance when they were not

    Allowed to investigate all they did not know?

  7. What happened and passed was nothing but reproach

    Between the two leaders: neither anger nor hidden malice.

  8. Neither side departed from its fellow's aim,

    Nor did flaws creep into its purposes.

  9. This one softened in generosity, that one stood firm in proud resolve;

    Each of the two peers is a champion in his own field.

  10. Was anyone better suited to reconcile them

    Than their advocates, had they only shown good sense?

  11. And whoever loves a young man offers him sincere brotherhood,

    If ever he is to rely upon the two.

  12. Woe to the homeland if its people persist as factions,

    And woe to those they support there and those they forsake!

  13. Shall we seek today to hide our vulnerable places

    From the marksmen, while today we fight one another?

  14. What harm to the first free men if

    The hands of the later ones followed what the first had intended?

  15. Be, to whoever paved the way and brought it near

    To you, the best of those who care and maintain their ties.

  16. Perhaps tomorrow the final triumph will be yours, and you will be honored

    By whoever yesterday urged you to stand aside.

  17. I bid the blessed caravan farewell, and entrust to it

    Poetry's inmost feeling about the burden it sets out to bear.

  18. And I await the telegraph's report of the finest news that gladdened

    Lands, and made a celebrant rejoice beyond measure.

  19. Turn aside to every great man along your way,

    And ask how a man saves his people.

  20. Your adversary seeks a decisive answer; let neither

    Fear of him nor shame take hold of you.

  21. And if you see a heaving mountain of iron

    Upon the surging sea, do not let the mountain frighten you.

  22. And if you see ample robes of steel

    Upon the soldiers, do not let those robes dazzle you.

  23. Right has become stronger than your adversary,

    So whims and treachery cannot come near it.

  24. Do not take lightly a day spent as his guests,

    For it means life for your valley—or death.

  25. Pursue it as an opportunity, while the East is awake,

    And the West is troubled, engrossed in crisis.

  26. If argument is destined to prevail, however long delayed,

    Then argument will secure what you hope for.

  27. And whoever strives with sound convictions

    Lacks neither strength nor stratagems.

  28. Draw your proofs from your nation's past

    And a grand present that grows and comes to fullness.

  29. And pay no heed to what the narrators clamored about

    Against one innocent of the charge, nor to what they reported.

  30. And call as witnesses guests who once, in your land,

    Lodged amid the abundance and sweetness of your character.

  31. They were almost made a group of its own people

    By the effects of what they drank from it and what they ate.

  32. A homeland has insisted on its independence,

    Generous, whether others denied it that freedom or accepted it.

  33. Human freedom is the dearest of all they have known

    In existence, whether they went to extremes over it or were moderate.

  34. What blame falls on a people intent on their right

    To life, whether they demand it or implore?

  35. And today is the appointed time for what fate has willed for them,

    Like a star: neither hastened nor delayed.

  36. Take it as a favor they bestowed after making excuses

    For a while, and as a debt they repaid after stalling.

  37. If they handle the matter well, praise is their due;

    And if they mishandle it, it is a grave calamity.

  38. And if you lift their protection from the valley,

    They have no compensation for it, and no replacement.

  39. Your nation's destiny is written for all time

    By the pens of its righteous people, not gleaming swords and spears.

  40. They will depart, noble in their conduct there, and they were not

    Aggressors against it when they entered.

Sol 6.1