1. I respond to you, so listen to a wondrous tale
Supported by relics and books of old

2. The sun of civilization shone over your Egypt
Giving life, growth, inspiration, not veiled

3. While the West floundered in gloomy darkness
No sun in its sky appears, no shooting star

4. So the house of Pharaoh heeded the Nile's command
And their land was amber flowing, struck afar

5. Their kings ruled justly or not over the people
Prevailing, building, no destruction or decay

6. They braved the tides of time, just or not
The course of events went as they saw fit

7. Their pyramids stand firm, safe from doubt
Though years and eras whirl in orbit

8. The house of Ashur led the Euphrates' streams
To channels that soaked the thirsty turf

9. They built mighty cities, if stars fell on them
Domes would glory over their mass and girth

10. Their towers and night stars in embrace
Their walls nearing the sun's encampments

11. What regiments they marshaled, what states they crushed
Syria was theirs, Rome and Arabs too

12. The house of Sidon and Tyre and their reign
Queen of the seas, whether claim or pretense

13. The British modeled themselves on their example
And the Romans before them sought their eminence

14. Their ships plowed the heart of the ocean and in
The farthest wilds their envoys strike their tents

15.
Ask Carthage or Cádiz and likewise

16. The land of the ivory and gold torcs
Colonies everywhere, oh how fine their yield

17. Sweet the grape, pure the clusters!
Centuries passed, the sun of the East still rising

18. The West in ignorance groping, disturbed
But success comes after adversity

19. And the flaw of the successful: frivolity and neglect
So the sons of the strivers slept

20. And the sons of the West rose up, yearning
Their agenda: to birth a hero

21. To whom brown and black would bow
A graduate of some academy, disciple of

22. Science and greed's temptation
He conquered Persia, then founded

23. A city for his name, prided and claimed
Alexander the warrior, the impetuous, the bold

24. His own executioner when rage took hold
A cup he drank, a cup that spilled his ruin

25. For kingship is God's, not a usurper's tool
A poison seeped in the East's veins that never

26. Ceased its havoc, ever aflame
In an age when the East was dying

27. The West chaotic, science politicized
Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo rose up

28. And people attained what they prized
But they followed the meteors' lead

29. A hovering moon, calculations and orbits
One day their schools overflowed with knowledge

30. The next, strife engulfed all hopes
Banu Umayya, their lord proclaimed

31. No ambition of theirs but to strike and invade
In their wake came Banu Abbas with their own

32. Mad pursuits, after the others' decline
To Banu Umayya the sword fell, their ambition severed

33. While most of the Hashimites were slain
The Fatimids, enough said of their ruler's work

34. By God, not the deeds of ancestors make a man!
The West arose to glory and eminence

35. While the East decayed, its spring tainted
Be they Franks, Sicilians, Goths or all

36. The Huns, Saxons, Norsemen like giants
They shared rule, no precedent deterred them

37. They championed knowledge, unbroken by calamity
Eras battered them with full force

38. Gloom blanketing, light snatched away
But they shredded through them, battering them

39. With scimitars unparalleled, undefeated
With the scimitars of knowledge, the light of reason

40. Their people rejoiced and knowledge was bounty
Oh sun, will you glance our way and revive us?

41. In the East, your worthy sons are reborn
Return to us, else life is but dearth