1. Its basil scent wafted, its flowers blossomed,
Its buds burst free of their sheaths.

2. Each rose anywhere but Egypt withers in a year,
Yet in Egypt no rose ever fades.

3. Though its aftermath is farewell, its early gifts
Are greetings of peace, greetings of peace!

4. A land whose glory is the stretch of its valleys
And whose pride is its pyramids.

5. The Nile overflowed with good and watered it,
Clouds drawing over to flood stage.

6. Winter softened there until through its folds
Spring's smile could be seen.

7. Its warbling songbirds rejoiced,
While its doves forgot their plaintive coos.

8. Its sun shone out so brightly that no gloom
Could dim its pure and radiant light.

9. Blessed is Egypt's broadly diverse land,
With no single spot to match another.

10. Good fortune embraced its people and protected them
As the days have never protected its chosen ones.

11. The two lands brimmed over with murder and bereavement
While sacrilege was forbidden by inviolable law.

12. No rout of thunderbolts dismayed it, no lightning flash
Unnerved it, no collision damaged it.

13. Life there is profit and security, while nations without protection
Are ravaged by terminal illness.

14. O you who live in ease, if you give thanks to God
As befits Him, you will come to no harm—

15. Do good works and evil will be driven from you,
For good is safety and peace.

16. Every sort of kindness is kindness indeed
Except that perfection therein is sublime.

17. Is it equal in merit, what is fleeting
And what enduring in its benefit?

18. Gifts that nurture souls Cannot be matched to those that shatter bones.
Dew falls in places suited to dew: when the land

19. Will not sustain it, fruit is not the aim.
Many a plain is littered with hailstones

20. Blown off course like wayward arrows.
Many a dune is watered in the course of journeying

21. By a cloudburst that brings wildflowers to bloom.
The height of liberality is sharing amid the populace,

22. When few are oppressed and many content.
The seeker of knowledge brings greater luster

23. If he works toward benefiting mankind.
Who helps him piecemeal will surely enable some day

24. Whatever the patchwork has afforded.
And he who emulates him by granting largesse in his hour of need

25. Will earn mankind's many blessings.
He who dispels the clouds around him will raise high

26. A star to guide yearning dreams.
He who smooths his way will lay

27. A snare where darkness falls.
They thrive, thriving lads aspiring to thrive,

28. Each a lion of mettle answering the call.
They may seem reticent in speech, eschewing

29. What their words do not make plain.
Some of their state appears, some sensed only

30. By insight and intuition.
It is the noble way to glean from behind a veil

31. What the noble do not broadcast.
A band of patrons backed them, yet orphans they remain,

32. Those prophets, a circle bereaved.
No guardian has knowledge, or those who seek it,

33. To resent or to blame.
They are the darling of every clan, though their souls

34. Are the cradle of the wise and brilliant.
Thus might and main of the powerful

35. Is turned to their advantage for thriving.
Never did any tribe rise on ignorance:

36. Only the great men are the nation!