1. Al Azbakiya is a wonderous pearl
And the stars in the horizon like critics around her

2. The lanterns narrate her beauty and brilliance
Necklaces of clouds in disarray over her head

3. As for Al Khamila, when she smiles it's like
Paradise itself or a poem describing her

4. The horizon is full of light and most wondrous is
When those staffs glide like snakes

5. What seeks the East competing with its right
Except what seeks the West following with its left

6. Folded up the hills and the air spreads them
Spread out the meadows and the air folds them

7. How many Pleiades and how many Gemini lasted not
Before fading with no trace into their abyss

8. Ages passed over Egypt, it was no homeland
Though its inhabitants fancied many homelands

9. Between its beginning, if they were warned of it
And its end, a reminder if they were conscious of it

10. It's as if what was ugly of what passed between them
Were nightmares that flowed through a child's sleep

11. He cries and laughs at them, uncaring
Whether its laughter delighted or its tears saddened him