Sol 6.1

  1. Before praise and blessings upon you came

    the hope your subjects and all creation place in you.

  2. May your festive seasons endure, through which you bring life

    to Egypt; and may time ever smile upon you.

  3. And may your Nile rejoice at this new turn in its affairs:

    noble chiefs replacing the sleeping fools.

  4. Is it for the feast, or for a chosen ministry,

    that your panegyrist offers glad tidings and hopes?

  5. They left you its affairs and reins

    only to have you shoulder its abandoned burden.

  6. Fine are your great benefactions, and those whom

    you favored and made ministers—if only they would support you!

  7. But for your approval of them and your trust in them,

    those fearing ill omens would have filled the realm with doubts.

  8. So guard their consciences against contagion from those

    who went before, for treating them would exhaust you.

  9. O follower of your forefathers and fathers in

    ruling the land, repeat your father's deed.

  10. And grant your subjects what they asked of you;

    and the guilt rests with the tyrants if they hinder you.

  11. What harm to you if you wrest control of its affairs

    from them, and your sons share those affairs with you?

  12. These lives of theirs are held in pledge with you;

    and if they could offer anything more, they would give it to you.

  13. They do not ask you for a cannon or keen swords;

    they ask you for a sign from your mouth.

  14. Today your subjects hope for nothing—those whom

    you have instructed—save what your shepherd decreed.

  15. In the caliph you have a praiseworthy example,

    and surely you will follow his well-trodden path.

  16. Can anyone but the caliph intercede

    for us before you, perhaps to please you?

  17. O you who set hopes free, how can they race

    if their arena is not your assembly?

  18. Welcome to concord—a warm and hearty welcome—

    if it means fulfilling what they promised you.

  19. If you stipulate withdrawal, then it is a duty

    we owe you to love them as they loved you.

  20. Better for us that they declare their hatred than

    that they proclaim to you a pledge with its bonds undone.

  21. It is good to approve of them when they surrender

    to you dominion in the land and the power to bestow it.

  22. You dealt amicably with them to dispel a suspicion against us,

    with which they often fought you, yet never despoiled you.

  23. They did not beguile you; you merely humored them

    for a time, as your kin had humored them.

  24. What you see was not love, but rather

    the deceiver's concealment of his exposed secret.

  25. Have you seen how he slandered every refined

    free man, and proved a deceiver himself deceived?

  26. Today he complains of us to you, though we have

    nothing but loyalty; tomorrow he will complain of you.

  27. Despite his delusions and threats, he was worn out by

    this struggle, and began to court your friendship.

  28. What do you think of powerful men distressed

    that we feel, and that we place our hope in you?

  29. Did they suppose the subjects, firm in their conviction,

    would appease those reproaching them over you—or did they suppose you would?

  30. Was the one who greeted you a troublemaker,

    or was the one who saw you unstirred by longing?

  31. And does he wrong you, or his enemies—

    the one who sees no partner for you in the land?

  32. None but you remains for the land and its people;

    so be intent on supporting whoever preserves you.

  33. You have in your conviction and experience a safeguard

    for the loyal, protecting them and protecting you.

  34. We surely hope for deliverance, and its paths

    are diverse; around you stands a state that would ransom you.

  35. In the House of Osman your people have an example

    that has assured them of Egypt's imminent independence.

  36. So it is as though I see you extending to them

    your hand, which helps whoever helps you.

  37. And it is as though I see them come to you in might,

    rescuing the burdened, exhausted one.

  38. How welcome the day of withdrawal, when we see no

    troops charging, nor any blood spilled!

  39. These are my fine thoughts and my protective zeal;

    do you see me inciting you, or counseling you?

  40. May no feast or festive season in Egypt delight me

    until your valley is free once more.

Sol 6.1