بني وهب اللَّه جارٌ لكم

بني وهب اللَّه جارٌ لكم

من النائبات وأزمانِها

من النائبات وأزمانِها

O sons of Wahb, God is your protector

God has granted you a neighbor

Against calamities and their seasons.

Who withstands adversities and their times

يغيظُ العدا أنكم عُصبةٌ

يغيظُ العدا أنكم عُصبةٌ

تَبيَّن رُجحان ميزانِها

تَبيَّن رُجحان ميزانِها

It enrages the enemies that you are a united band

The enemies resent that you are a faction

Whose greater weight in the scales is clear.

Whose balance has proven correct

جُعلتم وأبناؤكم دَوْحةً

جُعلتم وأبناؤكم دَوْحةً

مَقيلُ الورى تحت أفنانها

مَقيلُ الورى تحت أفنانها

You and your sons were made a spreading tree,

You and your sons have become a fountain

Beneath whose boughs humankind rests at noon.

The sanctuary of mankind beneath its branches

فكان القوامُ بأعرافها

فكان القوامُ بأعرافها

وكان التمامُ بأغصانها

وكان التمامُ بأغصانها

So its stature lay in its topmost boughs,

Thus propriety was sustained through its manners

And its fullness lay in its branches.

And perfection through its branches

ولن يذهب الدهرُ حتى تُرى

ولن يذهب الدهرُ حتى تُرى

سليمانُها كسليمانها

سليمانُها كسليمانها

And time will not pass before one sees

Time will not pass until Suleiman

Its Sulayman as the equal of its Sulayman.

Is seen like his namesake

أقول لمستخْبرٍ عنكُمُ

أقول لمستخْبرٍ عنكُمُ

ودعوايَ رهنٌ ببُرهانها

ودعوايَ رهنٌ ببُرهانها

I say to one who asks about you,

I say to one inquiring of you

And my claim is bound to its proof:

My invocation depends on its proof

أولئك عُدَّةُ أملاكنا

أولئك عُدَّةُ أملاكنا

قديماً وزينة مُزدانها

قديماً وزينة مُزدانها

Those are the mainstay of our kings,

Those are the substance of our nation

Of old, and the adornment of the resplendent among them.

Anciently and the adornment of its decoration

فهم في العَناء كأسيافها

فهم في العَناء كأسيافها

وهم في البهاء كتيجانها

وهم في البهاء كتيجانها

So in hardship they are like their swords,

For they are its swords in tribulation

And in splendor they are like their crowns.

And its crowns in prosperity

ولم أُوفِهم حقَّ تمثيلهم

ولم أُوفِهم حقَّ تمثيلهم

ضلالاً لنفسي ونسيانها

ضلالاً لنفسي ونسيانها

And I have not done them justice in my comparisons,

I have not fully represented them

Through my own soul's error and forgetfulness.

Straying for myself and forgetting them

وليسوا كعينٍ وإنسانها

وليسوا كعينٍ وإنسانها

وما قدرُ عين وإنسانها

وما قدرُ عين وإنسانها

Nor are they like an eye and its pupil;

They are not like an eye and its sight

And what is an eye and its pupil worth?

Nor the worth of an eye and its vision

سأُعلى مراتب أمثالها

سأُعلى مراتب أمثالها

بما رفع اللَّهُ من شانها

بما رفع اللَّهُ من شانها

I shall raise the level of these comparisons,

I elevate the status of their similes

To match the stature to which God has raised them.

With what God has raised of their distinction

همُ للمولك أرواحها

همُ للمولك أرواحها

إذا الناسُ كانوا كأبدانها

إذا الناسُ كانوا كأبدانها

To kings, they are their souls,

They are the spirits for the King

When people are like their bodies.

While people are like their bodies

فتلك الخلافةُ تعتدُّهم

فتلك الخلافةُ تعتدُّهم

يدَ الدهر أركان بنيانها

يدَ الدهر أركان بنيانها

Thus that caliphate reckons them

Thus the caliphate enumerates them

For all time as pillars of its edifice.

The hand of time the pillars of its building

وما عند أربعةٍ منهمُ

وما عند أربعةٍ منهمُ

أبى اللَّه عدة أركانها

أبى اللَّه عدة أركانها

And not at four among them—

And with four of them present

God forbids it—does the count of its pillars end.

God has refused the pillars of its edifice

ولكن لها منهمُ عدَّةٌ

ولكن لها منهمُ عدَّةٌ

كقَطْر السماء وسكانها

كقَطْر السماء وسكانها

But it has among them a multitude,

But it has from them a number

Like heaven's raindrops and its inhabitants.

Like the rain of the sky and its inhabitants

وأقلامُهم عند أملاكنا

وأقلامُهم عند أملاكنا

أسنةُ أرماح فرسانها

أسنةُ أرماح فرسانها

And their pens, in our kings' eyes,

Their pens with our rulers

Are the spearheads of their horsemen's lances.

Are the tongues of the spears of its horsemen

وحنَّت إليكم وزاراتُهُمْ

وحنَّت إليكم وزاراتُهُمْ

فحنَّت إلى خير أوطانها

فحنَّت إلى خير أوطانها

And their vizierates have yearned for you,

Their ministries yearned toward you

So they have yearned for the best of their homes.

So they yearned toward the best of homelands

لئن ضُمِّنُوا صوْن ساداتنا

لئن ضُمِّنُوا صوْن ساداتنا

لما صان عينا كأجفانها

لما صان عينا كأجفانها

If indeed they are entrusted with safeguarding our lords,

Were they commissioned to guard our masters

Surely nothing guards an eye like its eyelids.

They would guard them like their eyelids