1. O you who has chosen Aswan as home
Like a dove you wish to settle

2. Take off your shoes and lower your gaze and be humble
Do not try to comprehend the signs of fate

3. Stop at those palaces submerged in the sea
Some holding others in fear

4. Like maidens hidden in the water decently
Swimming in it with hands outstretched

5. Overlooking sunset, they once overlooked
The stars rising high

6. Time has aged around them but the arts
Of youth are still fresh

7. Murals as if the painter just yesterday
Brushed them off with his hands

8. And paints glossy as oil, squeezed
By lamps and oil abundantly

9. And lines as if they are the ridges of sand dunes
Perfect in workmanship, length and width

10. Sacrifices that could nearly walk and graze
If given life by God's power for but a moment

11. And prayer niches like celestial towers built
With the resolve of jinn, solid and firm

12. Some were built by the Pharaohs with devotion
And others by foreigners who sought favor

13. With powder of musk instead of brick dust
And rubies instead of gravel

14. Their fortune today is neglect, though long ago
They rose high and fell low

15. They brought good fortune and misfortune to the lands
Until misfortune came to them in full

16. Artistry that astounds minds and mastery
That excellence was a duty upon the people

17. O palaces whose sight, as they perish,
Made me shed tears, for truth must perish

18. You are a line, and Egypt's glory is a book
How did decay make your book dissolve?

19. I pride myself on Egypt's history
Who preserves their people's glory protects their honor

20. Many secrets beside you have disappeared
That even the Pharaoh's concealed

21. Say in prayer, though in vain:
O heavens of glory, if only you would become earth

22. Engineers were perplexed by you, their minds failed
And the determination of scholars grew sick

23. Where is the king in front of whom you stood, unique
In prosperity's order, brought to nothingness?

24. Where is Pharaoh in processions, horses
Appearing to gallop like steeds?

25. He led the conquest of kingdoms with pride
And rose high in glory and esteem

26. Where is Isis, under whom the Nile flows?
She ruled over both banks and width

27. Priests and kings lower their gaze at her ruins
And bow their heads down low

28. Rulers are displayed as captives before her
In the shackles of humiliation, miserable and scorned

29. Now she is without protector, complaining
Of the blows of fate, unceasing

30. She is captive between rock and sea
A queen imprisoned atop rubble

31. Where is Horus amidst sword and flail?
Was this how he was destined to die?

32. I wonder if he died a martyr of love
Or was it the treacherous who enviously struck him down?

33. Many lashes of Pharaoh's whip pass
Less severe than the pain of separation

34. And death by his sword, willingly
Less than the sword of longing one suffers

35. They killed him, is there no story
Where is the narrator in prose or verse?

36. O leader of nations past and present
You will be praised, be pleased

37. Egypt is home to those of generous character
Protector of protection, Hatim of nobility

38. Be a supporter of its people and their ally
And offer sincere advice after that entirely

39. Tell those over the provinces, if tested
By destitution, the land tastes bitter fruit

40. It is the Nile's way, if constrained, to overflow
They frustrated it, so it forsook its course

41. It encompassed the water, a generous catch
If only the Nile would flood during drought

42. It built, but wealth and knowledge are little
Save it with money and knowledge in return