Sol 6.1

  1. Repeat, O youth of the valley, your circuit through the villages.

    For your day there, after your yesterday, is a festival.

  2. And receive, from the welcome on every side,

    And in every quarter, whatever you desire and wish.

  3. And as for the martyrs, memories bring them back;

    They are present, witnesses among those you have gathered.

  4. The conqueror has learned what you will attain,

    And his might keeps growing stronger and greater.

  5. He has understood what you conceal and what you proclaim;

    Neither promise nor threat has swayed him.

  6. Is he whom these hearts love

    Like him who has fire and iron?

  7. Can the deadly assailant, fully armed, be repelled

    By unarmed strongholds and troops in his path?

  8. Can cries drive back one who knows no fear,

    Even if they are thunderclaps in his ears?

  9. Can Egypt expel the occupier, when around her

    A nearby invader is imitated by a distant one?

  10. And after the defenders have paved the way for a conqueror,

    Can frontiers and borders turn a conqueror back?

  11. No common bond unites those who act,

    Nor is there sound judgment among those who speak.

  12. Is it for financial crises that I pity a nation,

    While its mutual hostility leaves me in dark straits?

  13. And I do not know: are they masters in Egypt,

    Egypt's sons—or are they slaves to the newcomer?

  14. And each day the foreigner changes his stance;

    Is there anything new from him in today's reversal?

  15. And has the commissioner changed what was laid down before him,

    That odious course of conduct set by a chief yesterday?

  16. If he loosens a shackle from angry men to tame them,

    His shackles still remain upon the realm.

  17. We approach him with reproach at times, and with approval,

    Hoping one of the two approaches will have an effect on him.

  18. And he is only one lying in wait with his nets,

    Deceiving, or one fierce and hard to contend with.

  19. Has all leadership in Egypt proved powerless,

    Though lacking neither equipment nor manpower?

  20. And one prepared to claim his right cares not—

    Armed with his proof—that his adversary is stubborn.

  21. Whoever leads a crowd that knows not where it is bound

    Has walked among those he led, yet is alone.

  22. If the sons are remiss, their glory will not avail them—

    Glory in what fathers extended and grandfathers built.

  23. And after the defenders have paved the way for a conqueror,

    Can frontiers and borders turn a conqueror back?

Sol 6.1