1. I sang of "Lebanon" in my poetry for a generation,
And I wove it a wreath for its forehead.

2. And I echoed the beautiful melody for its cedars,
That gave me welcome shade.

3. Or don't you see my poetry as if its lines
Forgot the rustling breeze its dampened wings.

4. And the charm of Lebanon I gave to my poems
So they drew them like drawing their trains.

5. I gave them their eyes as open windows
Like their eyes when they cast a slain man glances.

6. But they gave them back in sorrow and wounds
Brokenly - so I rejoiced at their remnants.

7. And I went back disappointed, pulling the spoils
Of “the daughter of Beirut” - ardour and anguish.

8. Cursed be poetry so what erect and lofty peak
Swiftly sought favours and became base.

9. Its ambitions cast me into madness
And my imagination often tricked me a little.

10. I sang of “Lebanon” - and does love remain
Alive on my zither so it says:

11. I scattered it in its feasts more softly
Than the cooing of the doves.

12. And I wiped the tear of sorrow in its dwellings
And made my pure emotions a handkerchief.

13. And that is how I was and still am, as my family built me,
I repay good with good.

14. O sheikh of the astringent "Lebanon" - streets
And features, and sturdiness, and clan!

15. Its triangle represented in all of them yet it did not want
Other than you. And it will not seek an alternative.

16. Iraq where you have descended its expanses
Will count its dweller as your guest.

17. Good tidings “Basharah” that you roam through it
And visit its people and honour it.

18. Stand on the banks of the two rivers and confide in them
And wander through its apple trees and date palms leisurely.

19. And listen to the singing of its reapers in its fields
For the hearts of the reapers are fields.

20. You will find poetry much less than to be revealed
The language of souls - tendencies and inclinations.

21. And touch the sighs in their tones
That kindle from the corner of eyes a wick.

22. And interrogate its “sandy grounds” in its sides
For genius has often been inspired by its sands.

23. And be inspired by Kufa and Basra as they
Head the inhabited world.

24. They import civilization and talents
And export champions and stallions.

25. And visit “Baghdad” for its roads
Will show you seasons of the journey of time.

26. It will show you how when a state was completed
Pride blinded its men and it declined.

27. Oh “Basharah”, you were not created
To diminish the desires of souls nor to change them.

28. I have watched you from afar. I did not want
Permission to you nor sent a messenger.

29. And I entered your soul. I did not disturb
Its barrier, nor pried open “the porch” out of curiosity.

30. And I swore I will not harm kings nor see
A shadow on the “prince’s” door burdened.

31. Safeguarding the glory of poetry made a fool think
That I was born to be easily deceived.

32. And perhaps scoundrels thought that they
Would see a “sieve” bring out ghosts from me.

33. And I knew your merit before you became ruler
Lowering over you your draped curtain.

34. You perplex minds - geniuses and eminent,
And scrutinize the reasonable and transmitted.

35. And I found you who gives politics its due
Observing texts and adept at interpretation.

36. And who takes refuge in its shade from its shade
Choosing distortion and twisting.

37. And I touched your day when its clamour roared
And its torrents surged over plains and plateaus.

38. It employs explosives out of a motive
To defend its right and recruits its “navy”.

39. And Lebanon’s punishment - its wings embrace -
Protects chicks and guards cubs.

40. And your lions in their lairs - the might of their arms
Prevent wrongdoing.

41. Until when the dust settled and the scoundrel flung himself,
A whelp - Nursling of the “delinquent” - downcast.

42. And fate abandoned an arrogant one
Who filled the country and its people with injustice.

43. You appeared like an uncovered sword - neither surrendering
Cowardly, nor defeated, nor helpless.

44. And its valleys crammed at the two phones
Proclaiming your magnification and praise.

45. You deserved all that and more
For you were its bared sword of holy war.

46. O sheikh of “Lebanon” - and your experience is enough -
It raised you a venerable sheikh among kings.

47. You tasted the deception of the foreigner and its flavour
And essence and its sweet coating.

48. And you touched the flames of whips and their impact
Over backs upon tyrants as evidence.

49. And you saw how the solution fattened its people
Feeding your starving people.

50. And you knew the worth of the revered workers
Thanking, and the lot of workers abundantly.

51. Eyes have looked to you magnifying a stand
From the noble sheikh of Lebanon.

52. And they want from you - when their shadow has shrunk -
That you don't favour the foreigner over the foreigner.

53. For we - before you - have experienced the like of him
And more evil in the language of tyrants.

54. So a Khanzir leans to its sister
And a Shidqam takes shade under a Jadil.

55. And evildoers divide between them
Different paths and meet on one way.

56. So negotiate - for worlds have become one world
Its connection rope still joined.

57. And history will dredge in its current
A people remaining isolated and secluded.

58. Lebanon's heritage is old - its talents and minds
Spread it in the two Easts.

59. But it avoided from promises gleaming
Chains, and from covenants fetters.

60. So negotiate and leave behind you enticer
And before your eye gloating and vindictive.

61. For you know best if you are pushed aside from them
A handspan - they will push you a mile.

62. And if knots are loosened that make their untying easy
They strain you with knots wanting solutions.

63. Abdullah - and it's no shame that I see
The great status lengthening so I lengthen.

64. I honoured your summer arousing its sublimity
Speaking, and impelling the speaker to say:

65. O son of those who revelations descended upon their homes,
Reciting a recital.

66. Bearers of its heaviness honestly
Not submissive nor smaller in inclination.

67. They established their homes and graves
For the questioners about generosity as guides.

68. They buried ignorance’ obscurity
And enlightened deviation with a lantern.

69. They possessed the lands - their thrones and palaces
And made the dust of the earth sweet habitation.

70. O son of the prophet - and for kings a message
Those who fulfilled its justice were messengers.

71. Iraq hopes in the shade of the Faisal banner
To rise in it and lengthen.

72. No doubt a lofty deposit
The guarantor was capable so you were guarantor.

73. And the entity of a kingdom in its novelty
Requires gentling and pampering!

74. And a policy that embraced proponents of defeat
And adopted separation and misleading.

75. Tempts the intellectual to be an appeaser
And the son of ignorance to remain ignorant.

76. It burdened your shoulder with some of its crowds
A load men stagger under, heavy.

77. It tied your veins with the nobilities of Hashim
White Namin birthed Khadeejah and Batool.

78. And it had mercy upon you from ancestors benevolence
That grazed Al-Hussein, Ja'far and Aqeel.

79. You steered the ship when its pole was split
And its captain was held responsible.

80. It gave you its wheel so you did not return it
Fearing the winds nor were you hasty.

81. And you granted it - and gales try to destroy it -
A body unbowed and an unfettered arm.

82. You were given what none were given the like of
A people built on your gratitude.

83. Iraq reveres the pledge of Hashim
Since the era of your grandfather in the early centuries.

84. Filling Iraq’s breadth and length.
Their pilgrimage and circumambulation of its masses

85. To the graves of your family were not straying nor meddling.
The love of the first - they inhabited the abode appeasing them

86. So they repeat its caressing kissing.
O sheikh of “Lebanon” the scream of a screamer

87. Penetrates the welcoming and honouring.
We wanted you - not “gloomy” hearts among us

88. Nor fertility of souls barren.
To show you Iraq’s joys - its north

89. And south, and youths and elders.
You came to Iraq while in it from Palestine

90. A pain bandaged returning sick.
And the grieving mosque casts over

91. The sorrowful East a long night.
Palestine left as if it did not recognize

92. Among its patrons a guarantor and caretaker.
And it forgot as if Jesus and Ahmad did not walk

93. Carried in its surroundings.
And the Aqsa mosque as if the call did not rise in it

94. At dawn and nightfall.
And Saladin’s soil trampled and his armies

95. Of invading horses saddled it.
And the “Khanziri” with his alliance and promises

96. Remains liar - his promise elongated.
He did not heed the law of the unbelievers, nor fulfilled

97. Both their rights - the Quran and the Bible.
He gave Elnby its people so Balfour took care of them

98. And bequeathed them to Israel.
And today he boasts with "neutrality" as boasting

99. Of killing if he did not “skin” the killed.