Sol 6.1

  1. You have welcomed the hour of your present course,

    and chosen its horsemen for the distance.

  2. And you have advanced to the struggle as a newcomer

    among men accustomed to its field.

  3. This age has revolved through binding and unbinding,

    and through nearness and separation, in its cycle.

  4. What happened made one content with his lot angry,

    just as it made one angry with it content.

  5. Your tenure was fate's secret until

    it proclaimed it, and proclaimed it well.

  6. And it came to explain the book whose

    title you write in light.

  7. By choice or compulsion, shoulder

    the burden in its full form and visible reality.

  8. And press on with resolve and sound judgment, and direct

    what you have taken by its tether and reins:

  9. governments that have ruled affairs, so that

    each affair may receive its appointed time and guarantee.

  10. You are one whose aims have ranged within his powers,

    and whose experience has matched his proof.

  11. Peace is your purpose in governing; it was

    your goal before you saw the power of rule.

  12. And the ruler most deserving of obedience is the virtuous,

    and he whose party is his benevolence.

  13. And he who sets the scales justly among people—

    the people honor his scales in their midst.

  14. And he who has fought battles in the air

    has acquainted his eagles with his quarry.

  15. And a tyrant's ally after a quarrel

    is best placed to ward off his aggression.

  16. And the greatest of heroes, while the earth is aflame,

    is he who shields his homelands from its blaze.

  17. And when a noble man makes peace with noble men

    among his enemies, they become his helpers.

  18. And the firmly rooted mountains are easier for a man

    to bear than to bear his own grudges.

  19. He succeeds who seeks the ministry for God

    and hopes for deputyship and immunity.

  20. No one has attained the honor of office except

    one whose trials and testing it has prolonged.

  21. The safeguard of experience in office has kept it

    from becoming the deceitful seductress.

  22. And when the king's counselors strengthen the governors,

    through counsel, they strengthen his pillars.

  23. And what is right is a successor's respect for a predecessor

    who prepared his upward path and made it clear.

  24. And the most dutiful successor is he who finds his predecessors

    his peers in every good undertaking.

  25. And the defenders' mutual hostility in the great crisis

    in the face of calamities is utter betrayal.

  26. And a brother who offers excuses deserves

    not to see his brother abandon him.

  27. And a man's tongue is his desire; if you master

    his desire, you have mastered his tongue.

  28. Any reproach made only to seek amends—

    fear neither its mention nor its being forgotten.

  29. And he whom those far away fear is not robbed

    of his security by a close one's estrangement.

  30. And a man may indeed lose his life of ease,

    yet the man does not lose his faith.

  31. So if one side leans away from you, leave

    it to its private counsel, and await its goodwill.

  32. Where is my eloquence beside time's clamor,

    after time has echoed its own declaration?

  33. I am one who has assessed men and given

    every peer on either side his place.

  34. I am, toward reformers, the most steadfast and faithful

    of those who fulfilled a duty and honored their pledge.

  35. Can the country go hungry while the Nile flows

    through its hills, and money fills the treasury?

  36. And before the subjects stands the righteous king;

    they receive his tenderness and compassion.

  37. The good things from him suffice us; the final outcome

    of the affair belongs to God alone—glory be to Him.

Sol 6.1