1. I soared to the highest heights with my aspirations
Yet my empty hands brought me back down

2. How many in the land of Lebanon are filled with guile
For the guide of the envious is but intrigues

3. They say of me at first glance:
He is but sorrow in a sickly form

4. Struck with madness in his diligence
He stares ahead towards the tombs

5. As if glory resides in the orbit of the stars
Imagining it descending, adorned with necklaces

6. So he composes for existence, poems
Do we not see him dissolved in poems?

7. Yes, to glory I strive, and my home
Falls short of reaching the extent of my glory

8. And in it are men, lions in valor
What can I expect from the venom of lions?

9. A maiden saw me dazzled by her beauty
Harbingers not accustomed to such sublime allure

10. Her breasts peeking, shining glance
Not bound by feeble garments

11. She said: Why do we not see you smile
And grow accustomed, as others do?

12. As if you were born to remain distracted
Never did the cosmos appreciate one distracted

13. I said: I know not malice and pretense
To walk with the corrupt in Lebanon

14. I was born with the heights in my heart
My guide being none but my father’s

15. To Egypt I journey, O neighbor's daughter
I will leave my family lacking nothing

16. In the valley of the pyramids, tomorrow smiles at me
While here, each day wrongs the next

17. The time has come to leave lands I once knew
How pleasant was the life of one far removed

18. Would that Kanan was a place to reside
Where the Nile flows, sweet and pure

19. The Father of Bounties is there, with benefits
Overflowing upon any who come seeking benefits

20. No effort of one striving is wasted
While much was wasted by the diligent in Lebanon

21. Tomorrow, the home of the free becomes a merchant's wares
Sold and bought secretly in temples

22. And the free man has hopes he sees as miracles
That show him, clear as day, the most dismal scenes

23. The free man in Lebanon has become marginalized
Oppressed by the injustice of those doctrines

24. The principles of all pass with the faded
But the principle of the free does not fade

25. I became estranged from my country, so leave me be
I extend my hand to it from afar

26. Perhaps if my country sees me distant
It will yearn to see me in my poems again