Sol 6.1

  1. Abode of the Caliphate, the Bosphorus guards you,

    and the constitution has exalted your standing among mankind.

  2. These are the processions of its festival, through which

    the precinct's squares and houses have surged.

  3. A remembrance of a white-blazed, white-footed day: hopes were assured

    by its reshaping of time's vicissitudes and by change.

  4. Rule is just, and the subjects are free,

    and the sovereign, between the two, is most exalted and proud.

  5. The caliph of the Merciful is constant in generosity

    and beneficence, abundant in majesty, dignified.

  6. His counsel is trustworthy, his judgment lofty,

    and beneath his banner are security and light.

  7. He knows that the crown cannot deliver

    an individual until the people are delivered.

  8. He oversees the peoples' affairs and entrusts them with their care—

    a king with the power to govern and to offer choice.

  9. It is enough for the people, from the system and those who uphold it,

    that no minister should lord it over the lowly.

  10. He gathered the wanderers around one pool, and equal stood

    under his shade the employer and the hired worker.

  11. Ahmad did not reserve the caliphate for one people,

    knowing that the turns of fortune come around.

  12. Most worthy of it is whoever preserved it after

    destinies and ages had toyed with it.

  13. And the sword brightened the sky when it was dark, just as

    the throne filled the earth while it heaved.

  14. You have suffered from what enemies imagine concerning

    this inheritance—and burdensome indeed it is.

  15. Every day, Rashad, you have an intercession

    for the people with God, and He is forgiving.

  16. You made for the rebels' stronghold, and they submitted;

    and a skilled healer tended the bleeding wounds.

  17. And in place of the sword, after its clanging, rose

    during the truce, praise of God and cries of His greatness.

  18. You set their sons to prayer, and they submitted,

    except for a group that still rebels.

  19. Did they spurn delicious justice and kindness, or

    choke on this water, though it is pure?

  20. For one whose straying grows in daylight, it is fitter

    that deep darkness never leave his eyes.

  21. Let everyone remain unarmed who transgresses against

    his guards; the watchers are many.

  22. If the jealous one holds your might in awe around them,

    their corruption, if they are given respite, is great.

  23. Their killing was no act of vengeance against them,

    but an atonement for their sins.

  24. They are fuel for their own blaze for a time, and from

    their blood come seas to extinguish the blaze.

  25. If blood cleansed a sinner of his filth,

    no sinner or bearer of guilt would remain.

  26. Hauran is chastened, and Macedonia

    is bereaved; a warning has alarmed Iraq.

  27. Sanaa has disowned its evildoers,

    and Asir has resisted those who overreached.

  28. The Balkans will never be free of evil, even if

    skulls and throats fill their soil.

  29. Whoever will not obey you, rightly guided and seeking forgiveness,

    let him remain humbled and subdued.

  30. In the Red Sea, the voyager is permitted passage; but if

    you are provoked to anger, he is forbidden and barred.

  31. To unite its two shores has risen a most righteous man in

    Egypt, and another, mighty, in the Hijaz.

  32. The Sharif stretched his right hand to the mighty one,

    and a champion strove, whom another champion favors.

  33. He is the proof of pure lineage against those

    whom incitement and estrangement have made wretched.

  34. Without his mediation with them, no

    rebel would obey, nor would doomed blood be spared.

  35. O you who visit a people each day,

    would that you called upon Egypt and visited her!

  36. Her herald came to the Hijaz with Muhammad,

    after Syria; does Egypt, then, have a herald?

  37. If the happy Nile applauds, then

    its applause is only an expression of her love.

  38. And if her pyramids rise and look toward you,

    a greeting seeking your notice points toward you.

  39. The Muslims, however different their lands

    across the earth, have none but you to turn to.

  40. Between me and you lie two surging seas, yet

    my path to you, if I wish, is short.

  41. Were it not for the multiplying of fetters, I would have

    in every land a home and a companion.

  42. Who will give me doves' wings, so I may set out at dawn

    among the fortresses, with walls around them,

  43. and see the coasts, with chains before them,

    and see the ships, with eagles above them?

  44. They are like towering mountains, cleaving the waters,

    with molten iron roaring beneath them.

  45. If I had the reward of loyalty, I would have

    a Khawarnaq and a Sadir above the gulf.

  46. Enough for me are a circuit among gardens and a blossom,

    for every bird has a garden and a pool,

  47. and a greeting from birds passing auspiciously, as

    houris passed among the righteous angels.

  48. O House of Osman, peace be upon you,

    so long as feeling stirs the loyal one's limbs.

  49. I love you, and wish that there remained safe for you

    cities and frontier strongholds throughout the world.

  50. And I wish they might live with none over them

    as ruler but the Commander of the Faithful.

  51. Indeed, he who conquered kingdoms while doing good

    is surely worthy of this kingdom's perpetuity.

  52. But for you in the East, its stronghold would have fallen prey

    to a raider in the West, his nets outspread.

  53. After your works have borne witness for you

    to justice, can denial trifle with what the eyes see?

  54. O you who wear ample coats of iron mail

    as though it were fine brocade and silk,

  55. and are shaded from scorching blasts by spears

    in the deserts, when midday heat set the sands ablaze,

  56. and are far from home, whose remembrance

    is your companion in exile and your nighttime confidant:

  57. may the signs of bliss never leave your faces

    for a day, nor may the full moons there ever disappear.

  58. By Mecca, no peaceful man shall be frightened

    whom you have granted safety, while your sword is drawn.

  59. May none fear you but your enemy, and may

    gladness and joy never pass your loved ones by.

  60. Yours are resolve and steadfastness; your enemies have

    the rebels' incitement, obscenity, and falsehood.

  61. If they awaken rebellion in every valley,

    in every valley stands a victorious army.

  62. Their mountains bowed to you in fear, as

    boulders and rocks before them had yielded.

  63. And the hearts of the rebellious remain as

    they were created, overflowing with rancor and seething.

  64. Will their little ones gather around the lion's den

    after a roar has terrified the grown ones?

  65. Your troops marched toward every mighty undertaking;

    would that I marched among the troops!

  66. I would offer them the best that a hand has fashioned,

    a sweet mouth has recounted, and a conscience has guarded.

  67. I surely invoke the covenants which

    Aswan and al-Tur safeguard for you,

  68. and a trust faithfully tended, and a deposit

    securely guarded—beneath both, Thabir staggers.

  69. If I am your poet in Egypt, then

    tomorrow I shall be your envoy in East and West.

  70. I have persevered in struggle; how often

    has a patient man reached his goal after struggle!

Sol 6.1