1. Do not deny the melodies in my strings
I have no more notes left in life

2. Some of my loved ones passed away in pursuit
Of others, and the lead went to the best

3. The changing times of fate wearied me with their repetition
Is there no boredom from this repetition?

4. I am a hostage in life, who will ransom me?
I am a captive, so who will unshackle me?

5. My life is not long in its span, though I think it
Exceeds the span of lives

6. Gabriel and his children passed away before me
So I have agony and the agony of loss is like fire

7. In his father’s house I saw his growth
In the days he toddled with soft fingers

8. And I saw how a mother after him
Prepared for glory her only one and for perils

9. Of course little ones will be raised
For God and the homelands, leaders of elders

10. Unforgettable is the graceful mother
Whose beauty was crowned with a crown and dignity

11. A mother from those who are rare, and from
Her children were the rarities of times

12. They raised them, and with their light they illuminated them
With rays from the suns and the moons

13. Oh you who mourn Gabriel, mourning him
Is the most painful stroke dealt by fate

14. My eyes are surely tearful from the letters
Why do letters leap and spark like embers?

15. In the Arab world what a loss
From the setting of that hidden star

16. The calamity that befell spreads grief, and there is no eyelid
That did not weep for him with flowing tears

17. How is the sorrow in Egypt as if sorrow
In justice pays the wage of a steadfast fighter

18. Millions bid him farewell, no nation has seen
The likes of that great procession

19. Will he restore this East after clouds
Have shrouded it, the source of light, for ages?

20. If the press were fair to you, it would have crowned you
“His Majesty” garlanded you with excellence

21. Your father preceded in his field
And leadership in the field came to you

22. Perhaps one who followed you, and the tracks
Became clear to him, proceeds upon the tracks

23. What did you do when you inherited a newspaper
That enabled you to live in ease and comfort?

24. Stability did not please you, though you see
That stagnation is the ally of stability

25. So you went ahead improving it, not hesitating
From reforms and dangers

26. And you raised it for the world as a beacon
That provides them with its travelling rays

27. Yesterday its constitution was a hut
And today it became a state in its abode

28. What a difference between a newspaper with its texts
And explanations, flowing rivers

29. And a newspaper receiving from every rising star
The choicest news conveyed to it

30. It is an exhibition of current events
Near and far, every morning and evening

31. It is an arena wherein an ongoing conflict
Takes place between opposing opinions and their supporters

32. Freedom of dispositions and ideas is guaranteed in it
For protectors of every truth

33. Wherever right is found, it is sought, and below it
Is the force of prevention and conflict of the noble

34. Reveal everything in consciences, every person of stature
For good is in revelation

35. Eyes may be tempted by splendor, and sights
May be covered by the temptation of eyes

36. But the judgment of truth proves right in the end
In what it assesses of values

37. And then the people will appoint
Whomever it chooses, out of consent and virtue

38. The pyramids of Egypt, its renaissance is imminent
And its appointment is for pride and commemoration

39. Gabriel is its tireless architect, and his persona
Is in the high observatory behind the curtain

40. Egypt’s desire lives for it, and his approval is what
He approves in declaration and in secret

41. And for Egypt whatever it reaps, builds, and connects
Lineages at dawn

42. Nothing in nations but his people
Nothing but Egypt in cities

43. This is the journalist, except
He is in another image of merchants

44. Of those bringing ease, wherever they interceded
Among people, not those bringing hardship

45. And the advisors benefiting their countries
With integrity of revenue and expenditure

46. His merchandise was generous, and its profit was lessened
By the generosity of its seller and gratitude of the buyer

47. Charities multiply in his expenditures
Until the ledger misses counting them

48. Let not people look to the great in his deeds
With the eyes of insignificant, mean ones

49. So the generous giant compared to what they assessed
Was none other than the generous giant

50. Journalism is the preserve of pens, not
The target of defamation and playing field of the vile

51. It is shot from every bow, but only
A bow as righteous as the Creator approves

52. Or we have seen it build kingdoms
And strengthen lands over lands

53. My fellow mourners of Gabriel, of his peers
You have done him justice with this commemoration, but not

54. What his striving for immortalization and greatness deserves
It is enough that the pyramids prepared for his country

55. From power and pride what they prepared
And may his descendant after him

56. Have safety upon remembrance and good settlement