1. Ask the heroes, did they ever weary of the struggle
When they cast their arms down on the battlefields?

2. The people came dragging the slain,
Their reckless onslaught dragging wounds.

3. The blood they shed in their tracks
Fills the world with groaning and lament.

4. O banner that God made tremble
And truth seized from it what it seized!

5. Yesterday you were on their shoulders
Like an eagle’s wings, glory and aspiration.

6. The eagle that folds strength in its wings
And ambushes the winds has outsoared you.

7. It ruled the air with might, leaving
No refuge in it or sanctuary for any but itself.

8. It claims birds though none can prevent
What it decrees for birds or objects to.

9. God has increased its glory—truly
It has adorned the horizons with felicity and success.

10. It drove out misfortune, and nothing prevents it
From driving misfortune away more and trampling it.

11. Rejoice, State of Good Fortune, one morning,
And seize whatever success and victory you desire!

12. You came to rule, righteous and beneficial,
And so the affair was settled and the people rested.

13. Not Ibn Mahmud and his partisans
Who swept over the people’s strongholds like ruinous floods!

14. They wronged the people, fought them, resented
That they sought truth or consented to propriety.

15. The delusion of the Antichrist—how many an ignoramus
Threw himself into it and fell prostrate!

16. For the noble free man his character
Is a stronghold he does not seek to abandon.

17. Everything in their rule is invalid
Except what gives them clear glory.

18. Where is the ram of the tribe? What became of him?
Did weakness denude him or did he stop butting?

19. He stabbed the constitution in his death throes,
Twisting the horns of one who twists spears.

20. He was demented with power though the need
Was for him not to exceed requesting and proposing.

21. When he attained it I said—and wonder at me!—
“Age has declined, nor has play ever wearied.”

22. He concealed a fault with its like,
So it spread and became more exposed.

23. An irregular conduct and unjust rule
The like of which we never saw, so insolent!

24. O Ibn Mahmud, relieve a nation
Whose chiefs have plunged it into dispersion and dispersion!

25. The red donkeys came, then after them
The blue state—they surpassed them in exorbitance.

26. They lowered the banners, but when you came to it
It raised its flags loftily and at ease.

27. They taught it how to nullify its religion,
So it does not refrain from discarding and casting off.

28. Guide it to the ideal, accustom it to piety,
And restore its morals to health!

29. Take it, O Ibn Mahmud, and adopt for it
Pure exemplars and gentle manners.

30. No obstacle deters the reformer from what
His tribe resents if one corrupted clamors.

31. We know, House of Mahmud, your nobility,
So we requite you with loyalty and praise.

32. You did not deprive Egypt of yourselves—
Its truest right—nor were you stingy.

33. The qualities of the immaculate Shaykh originated
Pure qualities and lofty, weighty aspirations.

34. A lord of high lineage whom we know,
The most magnanimous of lords, exalted and serene.