1. O brother of time, what is time when attributed?
And where are those vanished nations?

2. You drank the ages and destroyed them,
Yet you still drink their blood.

3. You kill and revive according to a system
By which time revolves, fickle and wavering.

4. You rage and calm, fulfill affairs,
So events rise or settle down.

5. O brother of time, where are the tales of eras?
And where is the ink for one who would write?

6. You witnessed kingdoms deploy armies
And saw them as mended ruins.

7. Whatever time has veiled of their mysteries
Remains undisclosed to you.

8. To you I turned, cherishing wishes,
Sending them urged on tirelessly.

9. Conquerors reach the farthest extent
While fate, the inevitable, seizes them.

10. It disposes them in their demise
With passion not deviant or lying.

11. On a doctrine of the dawn’s radiance
It enchants them with pleasing grace.

12. Accompanying it is a splendid literature
As planets accompany planets.

13. So O Nile! You are passion and life.
You are the prince and father.

14. And O Nile! You are the faithful friend
And the most sincere, sweetest brother.

15. You are the poem I discover,
Making East and West shine.

16. Without you, drinking would torment the drinkers.
Your sweet stream could not be savored.

17. If you make these minds fertile,
It will be from what you teach.

18. If I have delighted these souls,
It is your sound, not mine, that enchants.

19. You flow, and masterpieces pour forth.
You run, and poems race.

20. Leadership takes them to the ends of places.
A heroic youth not led or diverted.

21. If I have a goal apart from you,
I would prefer or seek it.

22. You divided fortunes—who then complains?
You ordained life—who then blames?

23. If untried gold has eluded me,
Refined literature has not.

24. I gifted you kingdom, rule of verse,
The finest gift given.

25. Did any nation give what it possesses
While illusion toys with it?

26. It is miserly with you with bits of bounty.
Loss robs it of what loss takes away.

27. It harms you but you do not take offense.
It sins against you but you do not rage.

28. It kills your gifted children.
Wisdom diminishes what disappears.

29. Does it not pain you that the ignorant rouse you,
While we live in dread of what we fear?

30. If forbearance is due those who did evil,
Then defending against harm is even more due.

31. So drag forth only blood or corpses,
And pay the people no heed should they perish.

32. We now have security, so no rebel remains,
And pardon, so no sinner remains.

33. May hope remain for goodness from them,
Revering the worth of those you beget.