1. Take care lest you pass Tripoli in the East,
If you seek the generosity of humankind and companionship,

2. And perform the pilgrimage from it to achieve true guidance,
A safe sanctuary, and neighbor to the people of righteousness a holy place,

3. A city endowed by the Creator with His mercy,
With qualities that He has kept from anywhere else,

4. Its sea did not suffice it so Tripoli remained
An Egypt whose breadth falls short of all dry lands,

5. Not to mention the Rafa‘is whose
Achievements make even the mute speak,

6. The Rafa‘is, the highest of all standards,
And foes they lower, whatever their station,

7. They have harvested all the fruits of glory
And revived the lessons of knowledge that were lost,

8. They chose from the hands of merit what drew near
Its fruits, and from the lofty what was out of reach.

9. They followed in the footsteps of their grandfather the Faruq,
Those who drew light from his light will not go astray,

10. Like bared swords in their sharp edges,
A rank erected to guard the Law of Mustafa.

11. And so every man of letters who seeks perfection—
From ‘Abdulhamid he hopes the ear will take note—

12. That consummate poet, if his talent came
To contend, the sublime rhymester would not prevail,

13. The meanings are captives to his thoughts at dawn,
And have long refused any but him to harness them.

14. From a mine entirely unalloyed, small wonder
We get this soul when we expend that breath!

15. I say outright, and best of sayings is the briefest:
If al-Kindi came in his time he would not have measured up!

16. This is illustrious Tripoli, decked out
In gowns of festival from her Eid.

17. A fiftieth Eid it is soon to complete
In the service of the eloquent Arabic language,

18. Though my exile refused me to see my homeland
And witness in it that wedding feast.