Sol 6.1

  1. In honor of the good deeds you have done so well

    in these mornings and evenings,

  2. make your place within hearts, and take

    paths over eyes and cheeks.

  3. For the throne and the homelands are the

    deeds you have done and intentions held in reserve.

  4. I see the hopes of your nation, which

    you taught, filling its expansive souls,

  5. resting in you; they need no—now that

    inner thoughts are revealed—multitude of cries.

  6. It has entrusted its affairs to you and awaits,

    secure in stillness and in motion.

  7. And the blessed Nile poured forth, flowing,

    and the pyramids rose, peering out.

  8. Today there is no complaint from a noble wanderer,

    afflicted, nor any claim from a defiant adversary.

  9. The bearer of glad tidings brought news of the favor you received,

    and fragrant reports followed one another,

  10. praising your standing with Rashad at one time,

    and his standing with his Lord at others.

  11. Enough for the subjects is what you saw, and what the

    free men saw, of kindness and honors.

  12. The party of patriotic zeal is under your protection, and its delegation,

    and the one who demolishes and builds with the finest tool.

  13. The case's verdict is that their wishes

    and yours should meet around Furuq.

  14. And your highest witness to justice and

    benevolence is their witness to obedience.

  15. He commended the gentle people to your care; would that I

    were nearby to hear these words.

  16. Once certainty is established, is there any hope

    for reproachers, or any place for slanderers?

  17. The former ruler is gone, and his traces are now

    left to written pages and narrators.

  18. His own troops won from him what

    all the world's armies together had never won.

  19. And you saw the fate of one who ruled alone,

    and the stumbling of a night traveler without guides.

  20. Shall I condemn him, knowing what

    regard his noble brother owes him?

  21. And you learned from that left hand what

    we had not known of its deadly assaults.

  22. And you saw how the children of the

    Qur'an, Gospel, and Torah can be brothers.

  23. They remembered your tenderness during their ordeal, and

    your strength and steadfastness in calamity.

  24. They came to you, and came only to

    one lofty in honor and mighty in resolve.

  25. You heal their wounds and conceal, compelled,

    your hatred and anger toward the wounder.

  26. And when you bore sympathy and kindnesses,

    you found them regarded with suspicion there.

  27. The people were bewildered, and you were bewildered between beloved ones

    held captive, and defiant tyrants.

  28. They and we complained alike;

    they escaped, while we remain without deliverance.

  29. Had we known their anguish yesterday,

    they would have deserved these tears most.

  30. They surrendered their sheep to the wolf before you;

    and you owe us this sheep's deliverance.

  31. They held back, but did not abandon your father; rather,

    the branching doubts baffled their minds.

  32. When we recall a kindness of theirs, we do not

    forget their errors and failings.

  33. Those who were heedless departed, and a band arrived

    with the noblest, farthest-reaching aspirations.

  34. And we felt secure, just as they felt secure, when

    they and we walked through wandering and stumbling.

  35. You appeal to them through kinship and love,

    and covenant, faith, and mercies.

  36. Their might on the day of judgment suffices

    in place of truthful witnesses and just judges.

  37. If we once envied them a blessing,

    we have wished it for them many times.

  38. And if old affection has made us unhappy,

    the new affection to come will make us happy.

  39. And you witnessed the grandeur of the day of review,

    while lions crouched beside the thickets.

  40. Under al-Faruq's command, he directs them as

    the changing turns of time proceed.

  41. Their ardor nearly carries them beyond the bounds,

    were the enchanter of melodies not to tame them.

  42. And you almost think they are on a raid,

    but for the appearance of these decorations.

  43. Who will grant me access to them, to walk among their ranks,

    sweet in greeting and sincere in my looks,

  44. and roam those fields which

    contained the conquests of the earth in hours,

  45. and kiss the gleaming Yemeni blades,

    and embrace the brown Rudayni spears?

  46. Would that my sore eyelids became

    darkened with the dust of those horses.

  47. And the chaste women have made from spears

    a secluded chamber, and from banners, curtains.

  48. The lofty palaces wish they were

    those tents upon these grounds.

  49. And I behold the towers, standing high,

    and breasting the waves, seeking their way,

  50. bearing from the eastern and western ports

    the purest greetings and sweetest prayers.

  51. And I see how the mountains of fire move,

    level upon the surging, overflowing sea.

  52. Were hope not surrounding them, they would sag beneath

    the terrors and might they bore.

  53. And I see those whose aid I sought while they were bound,

    gliding through the sea, set free.

  54. How beautiful these ships are, like brides

    strutting upon this mirror!

  55. But for the forts massed on their right

    and their left, they would have welled forth, yearning.

  56. But for the destinies whose commands they obeyed,

    they would have streamed on through the water without pause.

  57. But for the worries weighing down my limbs,

    I would have plunged into the harsh billows and deep waters,

  58. recalling chapters of glory and exalted deeds

    inscribed upon these pages.

  59. In that bitter, briny water lies my solace,

    and those unyielding notables are my healers,

  60. the people of the caliphate, whom I have remembered

    until I almost forgot myself.

  61. They did not seize it treacherously; rather, they feared

    the scattered pretenders to its inheritance.

  62. And they took it from a paralyzed hand

    after marching over heads.

  63. They guarded it zealously, where its edifice towers,

    and the enemies' hearts melt with regret.

  64. In the two holiest lands, their Hijaz and their Sham,

    are two cauldrons of hopes and fears.

  65. Those who rebelled against the caliphate have become,

    under the constitution's protection, rebels no longer.

  66. Why will the island not settle, and why are

    its impulses and provocations so hateful?

  67. Have the islanders not seen beneath them

    fire, and curses above their heads?

  68. They threaten the Muslims because they

    are not disobedient to God and the Sultan.

  69. They did not heed the counsel of the one whose intercession for them

    the Almighty accepts, though they are the most misguided offenders.

  70. He now calls them to submission, the one who

    once called them to break free.

  71. Had your grandfather's enviers not betrayed his army,

    the lands of Rum would have remained Turkish.

  72. In the days when Egypt was a kingdom, possessing

    a sovereign's strength and advocates,

  73. in the days when the army was Egyptian upon the

    ramparts, and the judgments were Egyptian:

  74. a gift from the Imam to mighty supporters,

    and Islam's trust in trustworthy hands.

  75. Let them pay the price of the blood and resurrect

    the martyrs of that conquest and those campaigns.

  76. Their cure has baffled the physician, though it

    lies in the hand of a thousand insignia-bearing champions.

  77. Had each guarded his faith, they would never have severed

    the bonds and ties among them, even for a day.

  78. Religion is what prevents harm, even if it

    comes among scorpions and snakes.

  79. What wrong have Muslims done, when here is

    their helping hand extended to Christian nations?

  80. But for their faith's tolerance, they would have transgressed against

    religions, morals, and customs.

  81. If your Egypt makes no leap in the West,

    the East watches for these leaps.

  82. May the pilgrimage you resolved upon bring you joy,

    and the gathering of the two armies at Arafat.

  83. You call the disobedient to the Imam, and he relents,

    and you tame those restless souls.

  84. And through kindness you restore the exploits of a keen sword

    and spear, victorious for your grandfather among them.

  85. And you leave the desert a fruitful garden,

    and the lion trusted with the gazelles.

  86. And you see in the caliphate and governorship the best that

    we hope for between caliphs and governors.

  87. May those who softened toward them soften toward us,

    after having been the harshest of men.

  88. For they protect the people so long as they triumph, but they

    do not protect a defeated ally.

  89. Were they truthful with the ruler's men, or did they deceive them?

    Was it friends' loyalty, or schemers' hypocrisy?

  90. Do they support one who fights with his sword,

    and deceive one who calls out with a grievance?

  91. Why do they strive to remain, and why have they

    forgotten the promised date and appointed time?

  92. Did they remind us of past reprisals, or

    make known to us the raids to come?

  93. Let them depart with honor, and leave

    the great state the goodwill of other states.

  94. Even if they possess our necks, they do not possess

    our souls, though they spill upon spearpoints.

  95. Is your Egypt's complaint a sin, after

    they grasped the pliant reins of her affairs?

  96. They counted her free men's every breath,

    and watched their glances and passing thoughts.

  97. If they resent her zealots' combativeness,

    helplessness would be her having no zealots at all.

  98. Did you see her at the festival, lacking

    the adornment of her peers and sisters?

  99. She considered it; but for her pride and her shyness

    before you, she would have borrowed it from her neighbors.

  100. All kingdoms will surely do her justice,

    willingly at times, and at times compelled.

  101. And my hope for her increases because she

    is in the care of young men and young women,

  102. the country's rising generation, the flowers of its garden, which

    is watered with sweet, fresh water from your hands.

  103. For whom, if you do not remain sole master,

    does the country's Nile flood it with blessings?

  104. And for whom is the struggle of the noble, faithful men, if

    we do not reap its fruits in their season?

  105. The thirty years I have been made to reach

    are truly stages of anguish and terror.

  106. Must this life pass without being granted

    access to pleasures and desires?

  107. I remain here, and no companion visits me

    even for a day, nor do I control my own steps.

  108. Will they suffice, should a goal prove unattainable

    for me in striving—my experience and admonitions?

  109. Declare your approval of the unyielding, for it is

    the decisive word and relief from crises.

Sol 6.1