1. You split the sky with your renewed light
I wonder: what does tomorrow hide?

2. A year has passed, I knew its twists,
I grew tired of the unseen that did not exist

3. They observed the stars, and I went observing their elder
The elder of the stars, O crescent, perhaps you are my guide!

4. O son of darkness, are you not tired of travelling?
You always go to people and settle down

5. The centuries grew old but you still
Remain a child, looking at us with a blind eye

6. Life passes, and if it passes, it does not return
And I see you conclude life and start over

7. Will you not eventually wander confused in the dark
Guiding people while you yourself are not guided?

8. The people slept, both their meek and their valiant
While you alone stayed up awake without sleeping

9. I thought you were the herald of peace
But you came out like an unsheathed dagger

10. The East is inflamed, in revolt
And the West roars like raging foam

11. I see a fire whose wood was prepared
As well as its kindling, but it was not lit

12. A year, and another – one welcomed, and one bid farewell
I walked one funeral, and celebrated one birth

13. The old is gone, and I gained nothing of value
And the new came, but do you think it will make me prosperous?

14. The years resembled one another, as if
I only lived a single isolated year

15. They wondered: Why does your poetry mourn
During celebration? This is not a joyful melody!

16. What can the bird do when its feathers are plucked
And it is caged and told: Sing!

17. I wonder, O crescent, will I return
With victory of Muhammad's religion to the Muslims?

18. Will I restore to the Fridays their old covenant?
Will I restore to Islam the glory of the mosque?

19. You saw the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs in Yathrib
When it united the stars despite their envy

20. And you witnessed the state of Abd al-Shams when
Al-Walid in it pulled on the reins forcefully

21. And you certainly rose over the Abbasids when
Al-Rashid sat with Suhah in position

22. My craving for it is a state that was about to
Extend to the coast of the frozen north!

23. The East has a past, whenever
Its memories were recalled, it sighs the sigh of one who grieves

24. The East hopes that its shackles will be removed
The nations have marched, and the throne marched

25. My craving for someone who can trace his lineage to it but cannot be found
Neither as good as al-Najjar nor as generous as al-Muhtad!

26. We now live by the memories of our ancestors
Alas! The free man is not like the enslaved

27. Where are the mountains compared to the hills or the dunes?
Where are the strong compared to the frail weakling?

28. They are not of me, nor am I of them
If I do not make them rise in glory and steadfastness

29. Their ancestors were lions they could take refuge with
While we have huts – whoever wants them can hunt

30. They were caves they prided themselves on attacking the land
Yet their sons are exposed prey to the aggressor

31. They prayed with a withered, blunt spear
And we are helpless to attack with a sword

32. Where is the one who organized armies from the one
Who strung words into necklaces of pearls?

33. Their sole concern was conquest, while ours is:
To eat our fill, drink our fill, or dress up!

34. An inheritance disintegrated in our hands
If only this inheritance had not disintegrated!

35. You who saw a sanctified land made permissible
Yesterday it was in the holiness of a temple

36. Nations bought and sold in the market; from
The hand of one master to the hand of another

37. The war around the East kindled its flames
And the East watches, who will ransom it with payment?

38. Why do I see the East – broken is its wing –
Despite united purpose, not unified?

39. And if the nations differed in positions
Yet their goals converged, they would not be far apart

40. Our neighbors were disgraced before us
And their screams melt the heart of solid ice

41. Yet we see and hear, silent, as if
We did not hear, and as if we did not witness

42. And if we become zealous, we extend to them
Only prayer, and nothing else we extend

43. Excuse us, cousins.. our shackles
Have kept us from aiding the distressed

44. It is too heavy for us to see our neighbors
Snatched away, while our hands are tied!

45. Who will bring me a new generation that has inherited
Nothing but from the most distant noble ancestor

46. Like the son of India inherited his ancestral way
Or Khalid his burning resolve

47. Who is not accustomed to the injustice we are accustomed to
The slightest harm is too much for the delicate!

48. When he stands to prove his right, his evidence is
The bombardment of cannons, or the clanging of swords

49. There is no good in a right that is spoken, and logic
However eloquent, if not supported by the sword

50. A generation: if dishonor is placed upon it, it refuses, and if
It is asked for sacrifice, it does not hesitate

51. It desires a free life, and detests it subjugated
And it is called to sacrifice itself, so it sacrifices