1. Call upon inspiration as much as you can call upon it
Indeed, rights require you to fulfill them

2. No matter how much inertia afflicts it, for
The miracle of Ahmed is what makes its water gush

3. No matter how much the clouds accumulate on its horizon
For today, you have what brings back its serenity

4. Do not make excuses that early misfortunes have closed
Its path and plain upon it

5. For the most important thing clouds intend when they pass
Is the abundance of its rain and generosity

6. The right to speak frankly takes the flints and indeed
Swords are honed by constant sharpening

7. And the spear gains sturdiness through straightening
And horses display their might in galloping

8. Far be it that talents would be stingy with their gifts
As long as Shawqi takes care of inspiring them

9. The supreme poet whose words
Genius guaranteed would remain through time

10. His eloquence made the early poets forgetful
And Hawazen and Thaqif became ransoms for it

11. For every creature he sends forth a poem
That adorns all creatures with splendor

12. All meanings became his possession
So he attained from them whatever virgin he desired

13. And he clothed the Arabic tongue in fine mantles
Alas, time waits not for its demise

14. Countries will immortalize in honoring him
A memory that blankets their lands and skies

15. If the language of Arabs did him justice
Its mornings and evenings would bless him

16. For every subject Shawqi obtained its pinnacles
His verses reached hearts and cured them

17. Shakespeare cries for the likes of it
And Goethe enviously spends the night loathing it

18. If the gods of eloquence had known Shawqi
They would have softened their great pride

19. The East's artisan whose tones
Clear its horizons of clouds

20. In each letter of his composition
Is a melody that stirs its joy and tears

21. No affliction befell Islam without
His poetry returning its echoes

22. Revealing its horrors, detailing its pains and cure
His poems were images to revive his country

23. And I see nights cannot empower a nation
Unless its intimate thoughts are its poets

24. How history in its pages has proven
Nations whose chanting inspires their foundation

25. By my life, a tribe is lost in life
If its actions do not accompany its names

26. And Arabs do not start gathering their groups
Unless you hear their anthem and fervor

27. He honored us with Ahmad, a poet true
Bearing in spirit its mark

28. I recite his poems so my mind fills
With joy dispelling its sorrows and hardship

29. And I remain proud of them as if for me
Apart from all people, is their praise and sublimity

30. My soul has sincere affection for him
Fulfilling the covenant of its growth

31. We attribute to Lakhm the strength of its origin
And it seeps from heavenly water in clarity

32. No flaws can be expected of it
None can impugn its structure

33. You asked that my poetry fulfill my affection
And I find it falls short of matching it

34. My bond with poetry is as if it were
A debt the winds demanded be paid

35. I call but what would please me does not come
And poetry is finding souls approval

36. And poetry is depicting consciences flourishing
Drawing out their curves and bends

37. And poetry leaves meanings depicted
So you can nearly touch their haze

38. And poetry is where it is said "who said this?"
Not "who vomited this?"

39. And there is a soul, bitter, that sometimes
Dictates to me its whims from on high

40. If you do not first find inciting me
You blame me for its praises and rhyme

41. Oh Shawqi, you left the race behind
With leadership that made racers trail it

42. Necks sever seeking its goals
Even wishes do not hover near it

43. By God, you gave leadership its due
And grasped its necklace and gained its love

44. And you trounced all the brilliant
And triumphed over the garden of genius in all things

45. When I saw you had drained the depths of its nature
I cast off from myself its bucket and pulley

46. So be joyous on the throne of leadership in poetry that
Handed you its banner and loyalty

47. And do right for an Arabic nation
For you remain the joy of its eye and light