1. O people of Egypt, neither the greedy nor you
Have any share of it to grab in cupped palms,

2. Do you sleep through the earthquake or does it not appall you
The writhing of this raging, frowning monster?

3. By the life of the sublime, you are their children though not what they built
Of glory in the shade of the towering palm,

4. If you do not rouse as lions do at the roar
You will suffer from the falsity of disjointed talk.

5. Indeed advice has enlightened you, had you but understood it,
Discourses that illuminate the path for the comprehending mind.

6. Has not one of my people aspired to the height of awakening
To drive off disgrace that has settled on Egypt?

7. Yes, they would have, had their determination returned to them
And if the hatred of the adamant aggressor had alarmed them.

8. They are slow to the great task, as though they see in it
A prescribed death sentence.

9. Wretched submissives bearing every darkness,
And he who fears the side of might will be oppressed.

10. People are but in struggle and torrential
Life where the daring lead and the timid diminish.

11. The world ransomed some of its people with others
And they came to be amid drowned and floating ones.

12. The strongman of a people breaks the neck of their weakling
And proceeds to what he has dragged without remorse.

13. Right is only where the spear is locked in battle,
And where a sword's edge meets the strike of sword.

14. There, when war casts off its cover,
Ask which banner flies the highest and you will know.

15. Thus is the flock of birds in thrall to the eagle
And the lion feasts well on wild game.

16. I see Egypt casting in blind confusion
Spews that would lead the sighted and the blind astray.

17. One resolute with terror would guide them
Did the circling heavens hurl them in its rounds.

18. My worry for beloved Egypt and its Nile
Is the worry of passionate care and blood.

19. Awaken! Here is the glowing coal of evil amongst you
Blazing ever brighter; quench it today before it spreads.

20. Be resolute! For laxity is the worse companion,
And glory belongs to the striving and enduring.

21. My roaring at you is the roar of one in retreat,
Echoing the sound of the defeated army in flight.

22. And the entreaties of old have grabbed and held you still,
Like those of your mumbling and blinded forebears.

23. I have cast them to the furthest throngs among you
And so they barred you off from every pass and narrow way.

24. Were it not for the evil wrought by some of you
The pillars of glory for the lands would have been upright.

25. For candor brings salvation to advice
And it grows to the far horizons and space.

26. How excellent the praise of a man alive and gone
By it friends lament or reminisce.