1. O you, the firm resolution and youth!
O you, the fresh vigorous heroes!

2. Who have abandoned the frivolities of childhood and play,
Who have made Beirut the gateway for the sublime,

3. Who seek the truth and righteousness from suspicions,
Who sell the blossoms of nightshade to those who buy them as herbs,

4. Whose manners refuse imperfection to be criticized,
Whose ethics are of pure gold that disdains alloy,

5. Whose intentions are sincere, scorning false glory,
Whose views, though young, are those of elders,

6. However high the office you are called to fill, you fulfill its obligations,
The diligent and generous satisfies God and the companions.

7. Look at their acting, do you not see a wonder of wonders!
They have surpassed the foremost and attained the most lovable.

8. Have you heard the excellence of their delivery,
Whether in questioning or answering?

9. Have you witnessed their gestures,
That make remoteness like nearness?

10. Did not their speeches excite you,
As they rose to deliver their address?

11. They have created a feat, till we saw
The stumbler become eloquent.

12. Hail! As they met misfortune with honor,
They met punishment with glory.

13. No dejection is to be noticed in them,
If you look, no melancholy.

14. They care not for events,
However often events recur.

15. They spend their treasures profusely,
Pouring forth their precious stock.

16. They hide their pain and force themselves
Not to give vent to it and complain.

17. Never for a day do they desist from kindness,
Though time may have changed and reversed.

18. Their hands are turned against their bosoms,
In victory and defeat.

19. These may be deceitful natures,
Or firm as mountains.

20. The soul is what you make it.
Then reach, if you wish, the clouds,

21. Or live at ease, a groveling worm,
Creeping in the dust ingloriously.

22. Be a jewel that remains unblemished
In the burning flame, or be dust.

23. One is a falling star, the other
A shooting star flashing.

24. The difference is predetermined
When man shows cowardice or courage.

25. If you tame the natural temperament,
You make temper tamed submissive.

26. The world is not gained rashly,
It is gained by exertion.

27. Reprove your soul as much as you can,
Do not flatter or blame it.

28. Happy is he who walks not astray,
And sees error, so repents.

29. The sin is forgiven; he spoke truly
Who said the negligent transgressed.

30. O you who composed this story,
Your view is right and exact.

31. In diction and meaning your waters indeed
Gushed copiously and ran sweet.

32. You found rightly, you are the most apt
To be rewarded for excelling.

33. You have benefited: the supported
Is good, and the theme is good.

34. It suffices you for virtue that you have lived
In it what would otherwise fall in ruins.

35. O excellence of what is narrated
When I narrate a genuine spring, not a mirage!

36. You recalled a glory whose sun
My travels never ceased to follow.

37. And magnificences of the East, relieving
The necks of the West from servitude.

38. They marched over the viceroys
In the well-knit, pure-blooded Arab horses.

39. With their conquering knights
They narrowed the world, though its expanse is wide.

40. Verses of might recorded
On the pages of time their book.

41. O my people, history does not
Wrong those who passed away without reckoning.

42. And before the resurrection it still
Provides for them ample reward or punishment.

43. He who doubts resurrection, this
Resurrection leaves no room for doubt.

44. If we busy ourselves with life
We dispense with food and drink.

45. If we recognize the misery of the road
We see no path, but only haze.

46. Let us fulfill the right of the covenant
Which nothing can dispel or defer.

47. Woe to him whose cunning self
Deceived him with some trickery.

48. Highest endeavor is to expend oneself
Sincerely, not seeking recompense.

49. Our goal and request is to observe
Our compact and not transgress its bounds.

50. We summon the loyal to preserve
And magnify every dereliction as unseemly.

51. We say: be a spear straight
With which highmindedness advances, not kinship.

52. We say: leave a pride whose echo
Reverberates, making us quarrel.

53. Our ancestors were
The noblest of nations in lineage.

54. Is that enough for us
If we do not match their glory by our deeds?

55. O elite, who took precedence
In my heart and affection!

56. Who saw as I did the best
Patterns of harmony and righteous ways.

57. May God bless those of you
Who summoned and responded to good deeds.