1. No matter who aspires to reach your heights, nations,
Then let him seek to attain what you have been granted, O nations!

2. And let them despair of a goal that was once so hopeful
For an aspiration that could not find its way, O resolves!

3. For the steeds of glory rein in nowhere
But where valor and generosity have camped, O resolve!

4. And the one most right to rule is he who has the greatest share
When dangers are apportioned, though he remains humble.

5. Who more deserves to rule the land than a king
With whose sword its people were freed from sorrows, O resolve!

6. He passes just judgment though he discards
The garment of modesty and shows humility,

7. He would disdain, though granted the whole world,
To be followed by blame or regret, O resolve!

8. And how often has a pardon, when criminals flock to it,
Made them forget the beauty of amnesty their crimes!

9. And a hand that gives birth to blessings - if it aims
To foil the enemy, will bear no fruit but loss!

10. By your sword the right path shone ever brighter
And in you, its light almost dispelled the darkness, O resolve!

11. Since the imam of the age appointed you his strength,
Deceit yielded, and truth removed their fabrications, O resolve!

12. The turning of time was long suspect, but since
Your nearness proved true, no blame clings to it, O resolve!

13. No time undeserving of the world's blame when its days
Are at your service, as you desire, O resolve!

14. Upholding the weight of God's religion, taking your stand,
By God, when feet had slipped - and how they had slipped, O resolve!

15. You have shouldered a burden whose protection
Would exhaust the acceptable and the unwilling, O resolve!

16. With a determination - had its author wished for invincibility -
No walls would have protected him on high, O protected one!

17. A resolve that when it gripped Syria did build,
Before the caliphate, a wall no treachery could breach, O resolve!

18. How often did seditions take root in its land,
Turning the hearts of people gray, but not the resolves!

19. And how often, when an army flooded the desert,
Did you see in it mountains collide, O resolve!

20. A sea - when the lances clashed in it you would see
The billows of the death-sea - how they seethed and foamed!

21. For the steeds of its horsemen, the thrusts they suffered
Left shields rent, and their rips bloodied, O resolve!

22. Your might bent its battalions, so they bowed down
As if their joints were loosened by humiliation, O calm one!

23. The starry anchors of the houses of poetry - forcibly
They wept, once encamped against them in their lands were your tents, O resolve!

24. And how many a stance, when the battle was aflame,
Had you been their opponent, they would not have contended!

25. And how many a day they met in you - days that revealed
By night the darkness lit up by your lamps' gleam, O resolve!

26. By night, when its darkness enveloped all sights,
Your Indian lanterns were flickering flames, O resolve!

27. You kept their lions, by force, from their lairs,
So it is no wonder if by them death is heralded, O resolve!

28. The canal of glory remains not standing
But where the pen is shattered, O resolve!

29. And if the fire of that war has died out
In their hearts it still blazes, O resolve!

30. Out of awe that dwelled in their breasts and decreed
The army retreat from them, though still able, O resolve!

31. After the struggle, it left their heads ringingly sore,
White scars on the Maronites from its traces, O wise one!

32. Blades - when on a day of battle they left
Their sheaths, they left bodies headless, O resolve!

33. Had you sought to aid those who blamed you,
Your sword would not have rested until the blamers were subdued!

34. Had they crossed the mountain ridges, they would not have escaped
Being trampled under the noble horseman's hooves!

35. Leave them, and leave aiding those who sought the refuge
Of perversity - many an Arab has thus sought Rome's protection, O resolute one!

36. I see the nights of those brought near by you are blossoms,
While the nights of those kept far are clouds, O resolve!

37. If they are not bound by blood, then between them
There is the kinship of equality in fear of harm, O womb!

38. Their blood ran cold from fear - had your lances
Then gored them, no blood would have stuck to them, O blood!

39. Had you wished, you could have covered them with dust,
And none upon earth could have fled them, O resolute one!

40. But you followed a pattern you used to shade
Pardoning though unbound to - nothing is really binding, O resolve!

41. And since I saw you favor pardoning the unbeliever,
I knew you were taking vengeance through kindness, O resolve!

42. Knowing that he whom you were used to aiding -
Your favors will be bound to shame the ungrateful for their ingratitude, O resolve!

43. The Romans, without a doubt, are certain that had
They met you in battle on earth, they would have been doomed, O resolve!

44. How can their eyes still look with longing to battle
When tales of your might are on their tongues, silenced dumb, O resolve!

45. Had you unveiled their minds, they would have known
That what they were ignorant of was manifold what they knew, O resolve!

46. He who conquers is one who, residing in a country,
Bore its fears and disasters, O resolve!

47. How can a land you dwell in be darkened
When by you the horizons and gloom are equal in light, O resolve!

48. Or how can people complain of injustice when your right hand
Has done for them what no blood-money can do, O resolve!

49. Where in relation to you is an enlivened soil
When you are the life by which breath lives, O soft one!

50. Creations whose ample gifts have spread through the world -
Though the nations are dumb, they praise it in deeds, O resolve!

51. And what meteors of glory sincerely appeared
But I perceived them, O resolves of men!

52. Can your equals be possessions of those gone and those to come
Whose names are drowned in your famed name, O resolve!

53. Virtues beyond counting - their pride belongs
To your father's clan, and they encompass all humankind, O resolve!

54. So no Arab is without a boast
Of the one of lofty deeds - though foreigners boast of it too, O resolve!

55. O you who have with great deeds often plunged
Into depths no fears can fathom, O resolve!

56. Listen to a judge residing powerfully in the heart
No less potent than what Zuhair's creation heard, O old one!

57. And I am rightful to speak at length should I one day
Guide a crown whose pearls are words, O resolve!

58. Words that exceed the limits of glory - neither
Strings nor melody can add to their beauty, O resolve!

59. Hard to lead, if you lend them an ear,
You will know I am but a tongue, and time is the mouth, O resolve!

60. What ambition is there I will not attain
When this position is as I aspire, O resolve!

61. Our days in you are holidays, and our months,
For their ample safety, inviolable months, O resolve!

62. So may God, mighty, answer the prayers of one
Whose sanctuary encompasses those praying in your security, O resolve!

63. The hopes of Muslims in you were not dashed, so by your power
Their world and religion were restored, protected in might, O resolve!

64. And may your abode remain populous, and never
Cease your blessings upon you, made perfect through you, O resolve!