Sol 6.1

  1. Do people see evil, or do they encounter good?

    And are they heedless, or awake?

  2. Some signed the peace, yet toy with it,

    while others withdrew without signing.

  3. Some of them breathed a sigh of relief today,

    while others remain sorrowful and grieving.

  4. Has time known a war like the one that engulfed

    those eight, with eighty following them?

  5. Is it a craft by which kings vaunt themselves

    over their humbled, obedient subjects?

  6. Or was it the inherited disease of states

    whose dark natures defeated the healers?

  7. How great were humankind's sins, and how

    pure and precious the victims and sacrificial offerings!

  8. Where are the thrones and crowns? I ask them

    about the tyrannical, despotic kings,

  9. who raised their houses upon dismembered bodies,

    who filled those battlefields with blood.

  10. The spoils of others brought ruin upon their rule;

    do the exploiters remember this?

  11. Seeking deliverance from war, do we flee to

    a peace that increases the supplicants' troubles?

  12. For in the right hand are deceitful peace covenants,

    and in the left are the enslavers' fetters.

  13. Where are the terms, and where are those who act upon them?

    Or were those the deceivers' falsehoods?

  14. Are these the fruits of victory, brought forth

    for discerning workers by the clear-sighted?

  15. There is no victor today except one who tomorrow helps

    those seeking refuge, with his might and generosity.

  16. Tyrants submitted to Wilson's army;

    but where are the fruits of Wilson's ideas?

  17. He enticed humankind with their independence, then withdrew

    from them, while they remained enraptured by his enticement.

  18. Does the man of the New World seek what

    the prophets never hoped for since the world's earliest days?

  19. And would the earth become another earth, turning

    these devils into righteous angels?

  20. Fancies with which the hopeful filled

    their souls, while the carefree passed them by.

  21. In every age, right lacks support

    unless it finds a demand backed by force.

  22. For the armed man is the one whose power is feared,

    while the unarmed and vanquished turns back, cheated.

  23. People change in character and direction,

    as the earth changes in structure and color.

  24. The voice of spears and swords is now succeeded

    by the voice of feeling, bringing concord and security.

  25. For the peoples, now that their grudges have vanished,

    there is victory through principles, not through raiders.

  26. The outcome of defeats—indeed, of heavy losses—is what

    the Bolsheviks carry about morning and evening.

  27. They endured oppression in the land, then emerged

    after those wrongs, free but going to extremes.

  28. They would not accept, after their tsar,

    being anything but tsars there, or pharaohs.

  29. The people have their excuses at every turn,

    whether they have erred or been right.

  30. I do not know—human beings are suspect—

    whether they are reformers or self-seekers.

  31. How excellent the faction whose anarchy destroys

    the tyranny of the faction that laid down the laws!

  32. Minds have gone mad for the world's freedom; how

    brilliant the madness, and how faithful the madmen!

  33. Socialism will have the final triumph if it embraces

    the diverse peoples, and its followers keep pace with it.

  34. Then the many will not be the property of the few,

    nor the few the property of the many.

  35. Nor shall we see one man with coffers full

    of riches, while thousands go hungry.

  36. Nor shall we see a pearl upon a ruler's head

    toward which the hearts of those beneath his protection yearn.

  37. O you who gained from the raging war something other than

    what had been expected and presumed of it,

  38. you escaped its calamities; why is it that you

    do not remember comrades who did not escape?

  39. They laid rails for you along every stage,

    and subdued its towering mountains, making them yield to you.

  40. They kept watch against your enemies in an exposed position,

    and linked the Nile to the Jordan for security.

  41. You said, 'The Turks have come to invade you

    and subdue you'; so we drove them back in retreat.

  42. How often we reproached a people for your sake,

    though they were beloved by us and loved us!

  43. You said, 'No people have gained, without blood,

    freedom'; so we shed it, making sacrifices.

  44. Your soldiers took of our blood in Egypt

    what your enemies took of it in Palestine.

  45. Did you thereby wash away the innocent's sins,

    or are the sins of the blameless never erased?

  46. Do you scorn the human being who is your equal,

    and prefer water and clay to him?

  47. Suppose the land of Egypt and Sudan is a farm:

    should the exploiters overburden the hired hands?

  48. You inherited your enemy dead, and your friend

    alive, yet you still range across the earth.

  49. You have possessed civilization's flourishing part

    and its breadth, yet chafe at anyone who complains.

  50. Do you deny them, in your own time,

    what they have attained in experience and civilization?

  51. You have tried Egypt in chains for a time;

    now try Egypt at liberty for a while.

  52. You trusted Egypt in matters touching your security;

    so what is it you fear for Egypt?

  53. You said, 'Egypt is the road to India; if

    the road is lost, we lose India through neglect.'

  54. Are there no roads to India but Egypt,

    full of falcons or full of wolves?

  55. India is threatened by its own people and neighbors,

    while the road to India remains secure.

  56. Fear others, not us, and grant us our wishes;

    our wishes will never harm you.

  57. We meet you with sincere hearts, just as

    you meet us with reassured hearts.

  58. People's interests are stronger than their feelings

    in sway: wherever interests go, people follow.

  59. The resentments of enemies do not endure,

    nor do the affections of allies endure.

  60. How often a people's enemy has become their friend,

    and how often wrongdoers have done good in the end!

  61. May He who granted the Germans your peace

    make you forget the traces of the past, and make us forget.

  62. May He who turns the Greeks' might into mercy

    for the Turks reconcile you to us, and satisfy us.

  63. A span of land held by its rightful owner is surely better than

    provinces held by aggressors who violate all bounds.

  64. And one man loyal to a sovereign

    is better for him than crowds who revolt.

  65. What do you ask about Egypt, when

    Egypt's affairs have shaken India and China?

  66. Your troops summon people with sword and fire,

    and you seek respondents from among the slain.

  67. Take the chains off us and seek debate;

    you will see Egypt's arguments and proofs.

  68. Some states may accept your claim,

    but Egypt's people are unyielding and do not consent.

  69. Would that He who deprived the Germans of their goal

    frightened other people who do not care!

  70. And would that He who increased a people's strength and wealth

    tended and guarded destitute peoples!

  71. Do you shed your blood for someone wronged,

    yet begrudge even words on behalf of a captive?

  72. Have you fulfilled a covenant for Egypt, as

    you faithfully kept your pledge to the Belgians?

  73. How often the pride of free people has impressed you,

    whether they were allies or enemies!

  74. Have you remembered and honored an aim of ours,

    as you remembered and honored Washington?

  75. How often a hero has given rise to great events,

    and an event has brought forth exalted heroes!

  76. We were a trust of time in your keeping, and now

    the time for fulfillment has come: will you fulfill it?

  77. Every fair-minded person has acknowledged

    Egypt's right; will you acknowledge it?

  78. Egypt has insisted upon her independence; upon

    what aims have you come to insist?

  79. Will you grant Egypt everything she has requested,

    or will you take a share and give?

  80. If you lift your protection from the Valley,

    what name will you give its successor?

  81. And if you propose an alliance in its place,

    who will assure us the guarantees of equals?

  82. We cannot bear the obligations of an ally, nor

    those of a partner, while you keep demanding more.

  83. To neighbor and partner the stronger

    is like a sparrow living beside a falcon.

  84. Call Egypt's sons your equals, and leave

    Egypt's rulers as kings or sultans.

  85. Leave her to capable men whose experience

    spares them the burdens of advisers.

  86. They would ransom Egypt, even if her soil grew thorns,

    even if her Nile ran with molten metal and filthy discharge,

  87. even if it poured away into the desert,

    or remained stored behind the dam.

  88. Egypt's free men are rivaled by her free women:

    women who sacrifice themselves, as we hope, and men who do likewise;

  89. women at prayer matching the men at prayer,

    women giving alms matching the men who give alms.

  90. Has Egypt ever before today seen her call

    rouse shy, wide-eyed maidens to acts of rescue?

  91. They plunged into the blaze toward the perilous goal, and

    carried nothing but greetings and fragrant blossoms.

  92. Whenever a thunderclap terrified the Pyramids,

    they quieted what frightened them with song and melody.

  93. These are signs of the souls' faith, and this

    is true striving, and this is its spirit within us.

  94. Are you ready for reconciliation between you

    and us today? We are ready.

  95. Grant us the same as you grant yourselves;

    then gain relief from us, or give us relief.

  96. Our relations are entrusted to our own character,

    and our affairs lie only in our own hands.

  97. We love you as a kindly nation on earth,

    but we do not love those who exalt and abase.

  98. It is better for you and for all people that you

    stand, as we do, upon goodwill.

  99. O you who gather your cause beyond the sea,

    and go forth morning and evening with Egypt's confidential plea,

  100. you remain faithful to the firm pledge, just as

    we remain faithful to the pledge and covenant.

  101. You traveled with the hearts of the faithful on your side,

    and you return to the Valley in hope.

  102. Right finds support in every valley,

    whether it spends the day in London or the evening in Berlin.

  103. How fine your striving in every kingdom,

    and how fine Egypt's independent people!

  104. Whoever fails today to see his place in civilization

    will find in his tomorrow neither worldly life nor faith.

  105. We are more entitled to have our homelands cared for;

    we give full measure and weight in them.

Sol 6.1