1. What ails the shepherds! Their traces excite song?
Has an inspired one wandered the desert among them?

2. Or has Sinai been illuminated in the gloom of night,
And prophecy flashed its eloquent lightning?

3. They looked through its skies and contemplated
And their gazes met and they smiled.

4. Know then, philosophers of the age, for you
Are more knowledgeable of the veiled tidings of the unseen.

5. This Asian chant, its echo
Is news that brings joy to nations and luxury.

6. And your path is Egypt, and indeed its path
Is a vestige of ancient revelation and a guide.

7. Let the dawn not be the guide of your steps
Rather, your guide is the undying kindled light.

8. It is the magic of Egypt, her throne, her banner,
The scepter, her bejeweled crown.

9. And the brow of her noble king - it is
A light advancing on her daybreak.

10. He came to the valley with a smiling lip
A face the heavens have blessed and cared for.

11. Eyes roaming far as if he were
An angel pondering deeply or a prophet receiving revelation.

12. And it is as if hopes across his path
Were breaths of a meadow wafting in the evening.

13. The illuminated field looks expectantly for his steps
As does the river, and the huge, inarticulate mountain.

14. It is as if a spirit returning from Thebes
In whom the youth of its kings smile.

15. The herald proclaimed him and ages were astir
Nations turned and stars spun.

16. This is the king in whom
Egypt rejoices, this is her love incarnate.

17. For whom are the flags concordant in the dense air
As eagles wheeling around the clouds?

18. For whom are the processions like the host
Moses' staff parted of old?

19. And why does the morning echo as if
It were a goblet clinked or sealed wine?

20. And why the Nile's tremor as if
It were an old man reminded of youth, dreaming?

21. And for whom the chant on the banks echoing
Sweeter than the lovestruck lute and more prolific?

22. And for whom Egypt's citadels, scintillating like gold dust,
Invade the stars and push them aside?

23. And why has my rapture gathered
And who are those with lips whispering prayers?

24. Alexandria, you witnessed - so speak:
For today hope once vague is clear.

25. Give me my cup, let me sing and squeeze
Wine I can revel in without shame.

26. If you are the horizon of the inspired and most sagacious,
Then I am your rapturous singing nightingale.

27. O pearl of the sea whose beauty
No necklace of divers has equaled or adorned.

28. You have renewed the weddings of time and tipped its scale,
A caravan for the Great Conqueror and Guide.

29. No longer the tyrant of nations, but indeed
Your rightly-guided Caesar has returned a Muslim.

30. In a festival whose splendor
No description can encompass or imagination fathom.

31. A day of youth, no doubt,
For the East, a feast and bountiful season.

32. On this day history opens its book
Inclining its ear, lines thrilling.

33. My King, cast the first sign upon it
For an immortal people, undiminished by time.

34. From your youth derives its hope
And by your name prevails and rules.

35. So send it forth a vigorous, aspiring generation -
For youth is vigor and aspiration.

36. The Umayyad boy shook beneath his covering
A brilliance like the decisive sword.

37. He marched striking dynasties down as if
Samson in iron chains, crushing.

38. Before thirty he was roused and nations
Behind his borders drew back, overawed.

39. Glory is the gift of kings, but
Gifts are built up, and natures strengthened.

40. The hopes of ambitious peoples narrow,
And their frustration spurs on their imagination.

41. The strength and irrigation of nations are their dreams -
For imagination is a ladder to truth.

42. O binder of the shining crown with a forehead
Like truth bound, a guide and smile.

43. Adorn your crown with a gem never contained
In treasure, nor secured in a mine.

44. Inheritance of the first rulers named among them
A throne more precious than mountains, vaster.

45. Your people's representatives, when you rose over them,
The Babylonian nectar washed over them.

46. They hailed your glory, their dignity forgotten
In a hope too great for cheers, and deepening respect.

47. You swore by the constitution and the nation which
After your Lord in the sublime takes oaths.

48. Loyalty to your magnificent father, and faith
To your noble ancestors who preceded in generosity.

49. And across cities and villages gazes peered out
Passion whose fervor almost speaks.

50. Hearkening to your voice in the clouds, its echo
A melody plucked on their strings.

51. The soft breezes bowed down, swooning
And the sparrow hushed, nestling.

52. And the ears of corn bent over as the revelation of
Joseph intimated - green spikes rising.

53. O Egypt's voice, o echo of her dreams
Increase my rapture however much stirs and inspires.

54. I have handed over the leadership to your hands in trust
A people who will not follow another's steps.

55. And so you have received your crown from his hand, for it
Is in fate a hold never severed.

56. Let the ambitious king rejoice in his feast
And let the great, disciplined army review!

57. My King, your soldiers stand at the ready, and at their fore
A sword to kiss or banner to press to one's lips.

58. When they saw you on your steed standing
They placed swords to chests and swore

59. As if the ghost of Abraham appeared to them
And as if you were the twin kindred soul.

60. O leader of the conquering army, spur it on
For it is with the like of your army that nations are honored.

61. The earth knows it, bears witness that it is
A torrent when the iron flashes and helmets tremble.

62. Taurus or Acre - do they recount its glories?
Or the Ancient House and Well of Zamzam?

63. Or Khumrah of Sudan, a scroll
The sword etched its lines as blades probed?

64. Or Morocco's heavens when he opened its gates
As flames encircled his ship and embers fumed?

65. Were it not for pirates who conspired against him
Navarino would not have known this harbinger of fate.

66. Forgive what time has wrought, for anguish
Passes over nations, and so does prosperity.

67. Breathe into it from the might of your spirit a chapter
Its insolent foes strike down in defeat.

68. For gentleness is the mark of noble souls, and perhaps
The noble's own actions debase and discredit him.

69. We live in an age whose preachers speak
Devotion, though politics still corrupts.

70. And behind every cloud on the horizon
Lies an army of those waiting and well-armed.

71. They said: "A lad who loved nature and was nourished
On the curiosities of poetry, a wanderer."

72. He traversed the seas on the sail of his imagination
Seeking out the heights of the spheres, determined.

73. I am the one they claimed, except I am a poet
Who contents rhetoric however it is molded and fashioned.

74. I built on the ancient its modern form
And raised up what they had demolished.

75. Poetry to me is a transcendent rapture
And the rays of a cup no lips have kissed.

76. Or the tune of strings, or the epics of raids
The plaintive clouds have sung to the mountains.

77. I sent it forth on the day of the call and left it
Fire, and left the earth crimson with blood.

78. Your throne called it, so it stirred sentiments
And I interpreted its import and conveyed it.

79. I lifted my head to the sky and imagined
Myself grasping the distant stars, versifying.

80. So accept my ode if you would grace it - it is
The voice of youth, its ardent soul.

81. And farewell my King! - to the nation which
In your shadow finds refuge, pride, and safety.