Sol 6.1

  1. O Independence Day, are you

    its phantom, or its reality?

  2. Was it for freedom or for bondage—

    what they inscribed in that document?

  3. Does she rejoice at a festival—the

    thirsty one—and does the drowning one celebrate?

  4. And can Egypt attain her goal

    after they have blocked the road to it?

  5. They affect good deeds

    for her, though their nature rejects them.

  6. Even if yesterday they freed the land,

    she is not free of them.

  7. And she has become a garden, but

    the garden's fruit belongs to the foreigner.

  8. And if he monopolizes her Nile,

    he kills one sister through another.

  9. Can they choose today

    their fate, these herded nations?

  10. Taking comfort in wishes is no

    means to the far-off outcome.

  11. Does the cloud withhold the rain,

    though it has long sent lightning flash after flash?

  12. The warning herald has blown his trumpet,

    and we have tested him and his trumpet.

  13. What harm, after what

    we have tasted, do we fear to taste?

  14. Does he want what is in our market

    as plunder, while we do not frequent his market?

  15. O state, we reject your enmity

    and accept you as a friend.

  16. Would you bring humiliation upon us

    without our trying to prevent it?

  17. You are not merciful, nor

    can proud Egypt bear it.

  18. Ah, the burning livers, yearning for

    the valley's freedom!

  19. Here is my fresh blood, for her;

    I find contentment in shedding it.

  20. I let it flow as verse that fills the

    world and makes all creation listen.

  21. I find solace, and ward off

    with it the misery of time and its distress.

  22. And I bring back the days of

    tender youth, splendid and graceful.

  23. Whoever follows its current

    today deserves its nectar tomorrow.

  24. Whoever partakes of weighty admonitions

    will partake of graceful witticisms.

  25. Do you forsake one another, leaders of Egypt,

    before a deep abyss?

  26. Which punishment is most fitting for the

    man who harms his companion?

  27. The adversary has returned to Egypt,

    scowling after his subtle deception.

  28. He judges by his overwhelming might,

    within her, in favor of his flimsy claim.

  29. So if you split before him,

    you will all be on his side.

  30. If she recovers from him,

    she will not recover from you.

  31. Your proof is what you do

    today, not antique treasures.

  32. With their new and their old,

    long-established nations make ready.

Sol 6.1