1. They have a people firmly established in constancy,
Armored with the unity of all dispersion.

2. Time is subdued when they determine,
And victory is a tryst when they intend.

3. Do you know a tribe who failed though they
United the settlements and agreed in truth?

4. He who aspires to glory will attain its summits
Seeking and the victor is the seeker.

5. To abandon some wishes is better than poetry
If one does not succeed in it but the overture.

6. And glory, if no gain comes of it,
Is like a rose, little passes of it the plucked.

7. If some valor is the strength of the valiant,
Then all valor is a nature most valiant.

8. And it detracts from the benefit to his country
Of the valorous what an almsgiver may benefit his country.

9. To God a volunteer and servant of His elect ones
Volunteered, so the Wisest made him succeed.

10. Let him who says “This is an innovation”—say “A beginning
In good he inaugurated what is looked for and most ingenious.”

11. If a well-mannered person does not refine the character of the young
What does a mentor attempt and legislator?

12. Or were not the ethics of prisons deterring
To the junior—does punishment not deter?

13. In every country there is refuge; do we not have
What we may emulate of what is coveted?

14. Why do we find the nations ahead of us
And not behave as their example though we censure?

15. Set out to construct it eager men raced
And it is their due they should race.

16. It shelters honesty from whoredom,
It shelters dignity from ignominy a refuge.

17. It preserves the children, while strength of protection,
Lest loss should waste it one who would waste them.

18. What is our repute amongst men, what our mark?
Are those the scattered, the rib-marked?

19. From all whose youth folds on the bent twig
And their privation in the tenderness of the saplings browses.

20. No veil covers him, no superior
Save motes clothe him—those ribs.

21. The flowers of Egypt are luscious and the fruits of Egypt
Luxuriant. And the Nile—an excellent firth.

22. Which garden is the most fecund? And which of them
Is a water-spring for its destitute and fills?

23. The time has come to give some people direction
You are their resolves and it is their limbs.

24. The time has come the poor should be sheltered
The time has come the child should be strengthened.

25. Repel sins from the lawful that there endure for you
The most rapacious beast which is the most famished.

26. Repel the Reckoning, the true, from your reckonings
For oft-times the praise that spreads most is lying.

27. That woe bidding farewell and tossing and turning
From what souls rave and anguish.

28. So the decline of the habitation be not regretted
And let what we plant prosper in its place.

29. Then the fires of sorrow in our livers will dwindle
And the tears on the cheeks and cheeks will cease.

30. O you who competed racing to the dew
And most glorious to purest water racing.

31. Does the nation deny the variety of your hues?
When amongst you merit is apportioned.

32. In Egypt since this day the noblest stance
For glory is witnessed in time and heard.

33. It grew strong, and of the most sublime glories:
That by its strength doctrines all were unified.

34. Like the great palm, its origin coalesced
And its branches in the sky parted.

35. And by what it brought of rays and dew
The trunks thrived and its shade encircles.

36. I slip in comparing Egypt with a palm,
It is a garden its plants variegated.

37. All beauty is in its blooms their beauty
And with all perfume its perfume redolent.

38. That diversity for the provinces is profitable
When desire and purpose unite.

39. A redeemer of his homelands’ sons
And for himself an ascetic abstinent.

40. The devotions of souls to their Lord
Are only flourishing—the best content.

41. As for those who shine with wisdom
Their veil is the brightest light.

42. O my lords, the ways to prosperity many
Before the face of an eager this an asylum.

43. Whoso desires to please high-mindedness, his time is now
Or whoso desires to please guidance, the position.

44. Will Egypt the munificent, will its misers say
“She was miserly towards the most beneficial cause”?

45. You are its troop and you are its heart
And by you tribulations are warded off and barred.

46. Step forward and do not be neglectful
Step forward and do not tarry

47. And most generous is the volunteer.
If our beneficence is not anticipated

48. The day our zeal is evil what we anticipate.
This is to you my thanks in sheer verse

49. Nothing rhymed or inlaid in it.
It is pure inspiration—its beginning as its end