1. A gleam appeared from the side of the desert,
Has the era of revelation returned to Sinai?

2. I yearn for the most fragrant Mount, so I may kindle
A lightning flash of a clear gesture,

3. Where the clouds and the fearful Moses were,
It hovered solemnly, however it settled,

4. Its darkened sides weighed down by awe,
Its fires stifled within its innards,

5. Until its Lord spoke and it burst asunder
Among the thunderbolts in glory and loftiness.

6. And His rulings descended in its tablets,
Its signs written in radiance.

7. Do you see how Providence then prepared
For the East a salvation from gloom?

8. So a clear space was afforded in the tablets of behests
Empty for the inspired to fill with wisdom,

9. And a spring remained among the sands
To gush forth from the silent boulder.

10. The time has come for those living in their darkness
For an era of their emergence from obscurity.

11. I am the inspired miner,
To heal their era and quench their thirst.

12. If a leader of courage does not guide them,
War can sometimes save from wars.

13. Is there a herald or a warner, capable,
Clarifying for them where the malady lies,

14. To guide them to the paths of advancement, suiting
His time and the ways of the enlightened?

15. Poetry has not fallen from its former station
After prophecy, the descent of inspiration.

16. If truth calls out, its voice is poetry,
And its light, the light of its imagination's brilliance.

17. O sheikh of Sinai from whence guidance stemmed
From its wilderness in a wondrous sign!

18. We shall see, while you translate its truth,
How barrenness can gain life.

19. This deputyship has ennobled you, and through you
Gave the status of men of letters its esteem in the lands.

20. I congratulate you on its lofty post, though
Its duties are among the gravest burdens.

21. Let the ode suffice as a token, so take revenge for it
And raise your edifice above all others.

22. Show the kin of Ula tyrants the harms
Of that crooked conspiracy.

23. Indolence, cowardice and slothfulness
Are the least of what misfortunes have brought.

24. The decline of nations from their perils
And the tyranny of rulers and grandees,

25. Children of Arabs in sorrow for an era
In which literature was most miserably wretched,

26. Wherein the wicked treated unjustly the people of virtue
And the learned were enslaved to the ignorant,

27. And the elite imagined among their peoples
Their poets were a kind of hirelings,

28. While they are those whose words were recited
For pride, solace and consolation,

29. And by whose grace the meager minds of these
Were fed from every most delicious fruit,

30. And by whose breath their names became
Part of the immortal names remembered,

31. Reform through them the opinion of the kin, who opposed them,
Implements of congratulation and consolation to them,

32. And let the homelands witness their virtues
In this lofty office and in enrichment.

33. And let the days know their quality
In every station of pride and refusal.

34. O reviver of ancient glory through his poetry
And renewer of pure Arabic!

35. You are the prince, and whoever rivals you
His madness rivals only princes.

36. Today is your feast day, and it is one encompassing
The letter D across far-flung regions.

37. In Egypt, one of its sons recites poetry,
And its echo resonates in the Two Seas and Al-Zawra.

38. A feast day in which its people's hearts united,
Though they are often of diverse opinions.

39. What renewal of its lost glory, which sectarianism
Preyed upon with its proliferation of views!

40. How the sun shining upon it gladdened,
After despair, rising with hope!

41. Poetry cannot be lowered from the summit
Which no determination and patience have attained.

42. What sorcery but Ahmad Shawqi's poetry
Gently leading it with subtle suggestion?

43. As if its verses prepared for its delegations
In Egypt the happiest of meetings.

44. Only a singer awakens slumbering peoples,
A warbler alerting the heedless echoes.

45. Never did it have a special pride
Like its pride in its brilliant poets.

46. O Egypt, most splendid of Egypts!
You mothered among your children the greatest.

47. They gathered about Ahmad in fortunate assembly
The like of which news never proclaimed.

48. Ahmad is but the banner of his country
Fluttering over every banner in the East.

49. A flag by which the Nile knew the heights
Of mountain peaks loftier than any summit.

50. His cheeks shone, and what ornament graced
Its zeal like a pure white necklace!

51. Is there in the works of Abi ‘Ali a match for him,
If they embarked with fervor and purpose?

52. Or a poet like Abi Husayn, who adopted
The ways of the wise in every situation?

53. He understood life in its reality,
So loved it, rich in blessings.

54. He plucks its fruits without being discouraged by
Anything less than the greatest tribulation,

55. Spending his days in comfort and in his life,
And fulfilling the right to glory, loyally.

56. His talents have grown, and he has attained what he desired
Of subtle wit and clear intellect.

57. If you meet him, you meet brilliant genius
In the image of the sheen of pearls.

58. It was stamped with enduring beauty in a way
Clear, lucid signs, gently flowing.

59. Imagination adorned its beauty with its traits
And gave it shares of its perpetuity.

60. And now, when youth has passed, no trace
Clings to it of decay and demise.

61. Nothing is more wondrous than when she is his companion,
That man, strange yet familiar,

62. Whose eyes forever rove, and in them
Crash waves of lights and illuminations.

63. He aspires to the heights with his noble gaze,
And observes the world without disdain.

64. His eyelids overlook much in kindness,
And his conscience tends to forgiveness.

65. So when you converse with him, his voice has
A gentle tone, softly thrilling in serenity.

66. In his speech is precious pearl, and only
The ears hunt it through attentive listening.

67. But that voice, with its quietness,
Raises the barrier between them to loftiness.

68. Inform al-Shawqi, keeping ill-will from his people
And land in their painful situation,

69. That you can almost hear in his growling
A lion’s roar in fury,

70. And see, like blazing embers spraying sparks,
His invectives rushing to blackened letters.

71. And you sense the oozing of stifled madness
In showers of crimson ruby.

72. In every poetic genre he remains
Above the aspirations of his peers.

73. As for his gravity, it has reached the utmost limits
To which the gravity of the eloquent aspired.

74. And his gentleness almost flows in his words
Into the arid soul, like water.

75. Were it not for the novel delicacies in his prosody,
Only the ancients would value him.

76. Not to mention the refined elegance which he has adorned
However he wished with the most beautiful fabrics.

77. The breeze of subtle kindness blows through its ornaments
Like the morning breeze in a singing garden.

78. His talent tore away gloom and turned
To plunder the soul's secrets, sparing none.

79. So sights are overwhelmed among its innovations
By every vitality of an unspoiled virgin.

80. In his singing and weeping are echoes of
What the lives of the living have obscured.

81. Is there any listening to the expression of the agony of passion
Like his elegies and songs?

82. His ancient words revive the new,
And I see the old grow more moving.

83. Some speech, when you taste it, you find
Aged like the vintages of arrow poison.

84. His passions have filled the cities with wisdom
And invaded the habitats of ignorance in the wilderness.

85. You see the pearly lights in the seas of his prosody
As if they approached with their shimmering luster.

86. How much in his positions and tendencies
Of the dances of art and composition!

87. How much in his ideas and thoughts
Of the miracles of creation and innovation!

88. Genius depicted for him in their diversities
Sublime images in the eyes of the beholder.

89. I have united in my longing in one approach,
While his grandeur has diverse aspects.

90. Its beauties have filled the hearts of his nation,
And settled in the souls of his enemies.

91. For God, al-Shawqi raging or defiant
As a lion, volcano, and lightning!

92. For God, al-Shawqi in the ways he seizes
Marvels of circumstances and things!

93. In his amusement, joy, pride and crying his sorrows
In his love for the Nile, worship of the Bountiful.

94. In his devotion to his land and infatuation
With the beauty of that luxuriant garden!

95. In his pride in its rebirth from decay
Where the pillars of its brilliant youth collapse!

96. In thanking those who protect its meadows
And guardians of its seed from martyrs!

97. In urging the supporters of its oneness to
Affection that gathers and unifies them as brothers!

98. Firmly constructed in its pillar, for the cohesion
Of its limbs and members!

99. In advising knowledge, which protects its people
From disbelief and confusion!

100. In describing the wonders wrought
By nations who awoke while we slumber!

101. A description he mastered, enticing his people
To learn the noblest things from them!

102. He left no strange marvel, whether in earth
Or highest heaven, that remains concealed!

103. This, alongside what my mind cannot encompass
Or describe, even briefly, in praise.

104. The wonders of genius in him have attained completion,
Surpassing all eulogies in every way.

105. So if I falter and do not fulfill its rights,
Then forgiveness remains a sufficient excuse.

106. What blame to one turning from a summit,
While the distance is for equals and peers?

107. You know what I desire for him, woven
From a lifetime of friendship and sacrifice.

108. O keeper of the covenant to whom I pray, without fear
My call will fail before him!

109. Help your brother, and make him victorious
In a way none equals among the eloquent!

110. The occasion is momentous, and my spirit
Restrains me, so minimize, God reward you, his due!

111. Nobility refuses you be seen
As other than first among the loyal.

112. The lofty East, delighted,
Cherishing the brilliant for the brilliant!

113. O you whose friendship proved pure, and whose
Was proven to me in fortune and trial!

114. Honor me the day of obligation with his patronage,
And honor him the day of obligation with my loyalty!

115. In the literary club I knew his station,
And his finest station was beyond doubt!

116. May this feast day bring you, in future years,
The like of it in health and clarity!