1. Turn away your face from my thoughts and my sight
Lest they stir like sparking embers

2. And say not Egypt has become a paradise
That protected love in its fragrant paradise

3. For I have not known in it except my misery
In every era, while with them my lot is harm

4. And how few are my companions in its pleasures
Who died on embers or lived cautiously

5. As if misfortune sang on the day we were born
Ballads of valor, pain, and danger

6. And I do not doubt the loyalty of its leaders
Who saved it from the tyrant and the debased

7. But I thoroughly doubt their integrity
For their making has become a joke of fate

8. Those who shun the free exile them
To despair, and gather them to dying composure

9. And those who coddle the slaves of injustice
Who disbelieved in truth and took pride in a rotten stance

10. And those who dream of honoring their nation
At the hands of thieves, exceeding in harm

11. And those who say, the wise among them
Are as though stripped of the blessing of sight

12. And those who, confused, fear a conspiracy
They rave, they rave, and only they inspire the conference

13. And those who were cowardly, who paved the way for them
With thought, spirit, and altruism for victory

14. And those who thank a foolish betraying shadow
Even if it blusters with poems and images

15. And those who sincerely praise them
For Egypt's sake - exalted from willfulness!

16. And those content with their childish imaginations
For they are their amusement and entertainment

17. This and that and this, all are lessons
But they neglected these lessons

18. Until I fear for them their blindness
As though they resembled the defeated braggarts

19. O you who blame me, unjustly, if you are a man
Make your talk about the past, and take heed

20. My tremendous sacrifices filled its arena
I endured like years, my youth waned

21. No stab from the betrayers and traitors blamed me
If I did not betray my principles or my thoughts did not fail

22. I swear I never borrowed the likes of
The lofty, and I have not ceased to bestow its treasures

23. I am the poor man besides the One who created
Compelled to rectitude and from Whose creativity I emulate

24. If the renewal of rulers has eluded me
My exploits remain like the tails of suns in my effects

25. The losers are they even if I am deprived
Of seeing the visions in the Nile's sky or my moon

26. For in exile is a purification I sense
As though I were a saint awaiting

27. I chose it disgusted by their ignorance
And though I left them forgiving, apologizing

28. It suffices me the free man or the one bound
Seeks glory and my images have enriched my world

29. Just as I shook my hands of them without regret
And I did not shake my hands of Egypt or my sight