1. You statues of Egypt, you are its miniature image,
And its protecting talisman and great symbol,

2. Your life is more useful than men who are like
Statues that bring no skill to life nor memory,

3. May God protect the ancient house of Aswan,
And immortalize in its corners that palace,

4. It stands like a towering mountain surrounded
By lofty mountains overlooking the two shores,

5. Far from company, secluded within it,
Unique from settlements, desolate and barren,

6. Ask it to tell you of its deserted dwellings,
And inform you of the evils and goods of its people,

7. And the poles erected in it like chaste
Maidens bordering a flooding river,

8. Hard to the touch of hands and touching them
Harms the eyes, neither pleasing nor crying,

9. And oh Lord of lords, death has passed its judgment
Upon it, thus equalizing it with its bewildered worshipers,

10. Seek refuge in its mighty towers,
And it was not safe from the march of time or from treason,

11. So you its worshipers who have taken its secret,
Arise and reveal its hidden mystery,

12. Awaken and elegize it, for it deserves,
A Lord who inspires good and evil,

13. The monasteries of Osiris were built for the morning,
Yet there is an endless night and no dawn,

14. Bats fly in them backwards, and would not
Have flown in them had they known what is behind,

15. You see a thousand years then another, but never
See a day for them until the end of time,

16. O face of Osiris, why not illuminate them,
When you illuminate the plains and rugged mountains,

17. I raised my sights only to glorify you,
And raised my hands only to your throne in gratitude,

18. It stood the test of suns, and no one remained
Steadfast against the test of stars in Egypt,

19. Darkness accumulates in it, night after night,
With no morning or dawn,

20. And I am not stingy with light, but each god
Has darkness that veils the mind,

21. And many a god is veiled by light,
And the eye of a celestial sun is weeping,

22. The gods have multiplied, but religion is one,
So believe it purely or reject it purely,

23. The family of Jesus and Ahmad have corrupted it,
Did they hate faith or hate blasphemy?

24. Leave it be, for if its people are intolerant,
You will find refuge in the rocks and crevices,

25. Deserted ruins, not from falsehood and decay,
But because people abandoned their inspiration and burial,

26. So the Nile has rites, circling it openly,
And secretly vitalizing it,

27. Assuming a place of ritual and piety,
While crocodiles dwell in its palace of birds,

28. Murmuring is its recitation there, and listening to it is an order,
So those ruins did not cease being chapels,

29. To erase distress from its sides,
Bride of decay, do not drown it by bringing it closer to the Nile,

30. You seek fertility and abundance,
Is Aswan watched over, and is dawn worshipped

31. More openly than it, however time may pass?
A land whose environs God has surrounded,

32. With a halo, illuminating its horizons,
The people of the sun inhabited it when its torrid heat intensified,

33. And its scorching flames blazed in the desert,
With a disk like the mouths of volcanoes, spewing sparks,

34. Reviving and killing the rain,
Its heat breathed life into us, and our souls are a flaming pyre,

35. We walked wherever others pitched their thrones,
Rising to converse in its tranquility for ages,

36. Gleaming over the sands as if it were
The footsteps of time leaving a trace,

37. And one night we visited the palace, its dignity
Like the dignified darkness when the moon has risen,

38. We walked with the stars of the sky, and before that
It accompanied an era at the palace,

39. O moon, do you see the places of the vanished dust?
Will the water's surge walk after it

40. As it glanced upon a palm over its surface?
We crossed the river to it at night, as if

41. We crossed from the past to the other shore,
Time fulfilled its demise there,

42. So it had a purpose and it had a grave,
And we witnessed figures as if they were

43. Sorcerers seeking a priest to dispel the magic,
That heart flutters after its silence,

44. And fills that chest with its passions,
And when they saw it resembling human handiwork,

45. They said, "Come, humanity has been turned to stone,"
They exaggerated, except in God's creation of it,

46. And said, "Anhilate it," then silenced it by force,
Their loftiness was like a stone above it,

47. Or a belt girded around it,
A majesty enveloped by ruin, igniting

48. Misgivings in whoever wanted to defy it,