1. A life passes by with wisdom and madness
And an existence imbibed with vitality

2. Oh my brother, you are a part of myself, so be gentle
Let's not overburden my steadfast heart

3. Or blame me for my loyalty to the truth
And my protection of the foolish wretched one

4. This is my being and my feeling, so what can I do?
I have no choice in the loyalty of my heart

5. I would not have abandoned the Nile unless
I was hounded, even if I were a prophet

6. Crying over the lost dignity of majesty
And its genius shrouded in a burial shroud

7. Grieving and suffering when the Caliph
Denied him everything in all matters

8. They silenced him, bound him, and went about
Announcing the worst madness as "freedom"

9. Perhaps my critic is one I ransomed
With my soul as I ransomed my children

10. From exile, so I could heal with what suits
And suffered through my painful struggle

11. As his interpreter, guide, and intimate friend
In his eternal misery

12. I accept being stoned willingly as he complains about me
As if I were a villain of an ignorant people

13. Distracted, he forgot my efforts and pains
Defending his forgotten right

14. And in the morning he allied with my envious enemies
Appearing in the guise of a guardian

15. That the stab of an intimate is the most painful
And devastating of the ignorant opportunist

16. And the ingratitude that love is prone to
Is more corrosive than any malady

17. Five years in which the desires
Of the tortured exile are fulfilled

18. If I have succeeded in winning freedom
With a renewed, brilliant life

19. My heart still cries over my people
Like the wailing woman in mourning

20. If only we were like them, having now become
The masters in the house and eternal wealth

21. While we are struck by deprivation,
Abusing every opportunity

22. Surely the demolition of the pyramids
Is less consequential than the loss of national solidarity