1. قل للأُلى رقدوا والعدل يقظانُ

    طار الكرى واستبان الأمرُ والشّانُ

    Tell those who slept while justice kept watch:

    Sleep has fled; the matter and its import stand clear.

  2. ماذا ظننتم بها من قُوّةٍ صَدَقتْ

    فللحوادثِ إقرارٌ وإذعانُ

    What did you think of it—this power that has proved true?

    For events demand acknowledgment and submission.

  3. تعلّموا الصّدقَ والإيمانَ وارْتدِعوا

    إن كان يُعْجِبُكم صِدقٌ وإيمانُ

    Learn truth and faith, and desist,

    If truth and faith appeal to you.

  4. تكشّفَ العارضُ المرجوُّ وانقشعت

    آمالكم فهي آلامٌ وأشجانُ

    The hoped-for raincloud has cleared away, and scattered

    Are your hopes: they are pains and sorrows.

  5. لولا الجهالةُ ما حَيّاهُ مُختَبِلٌ

    يرجو المحالَ ولا استسقاه ظمآنُ

    Were it not for ignorance, no madman would have hailed it,

    Hoping for the impossible, nor any thirsty man sought rain from it.

  6. كلُّ السّحابِ جَهامٌ إن هُمُ انتظروا

    رِيَّ الغليلِ وكلُّ السَّعْيِ خُسرانُ

    Every cloud is rainless if they await

    The quenching of burning thirst, and every effort is loss.

  7. زَفُّوا البشائرَ للصِّبيان ما برحوا

    حتّى دروا أنّهم في القوم صبيانُ

    They never ceased carrying glad tidings to the children,

    Until they learned that they themselves were children among the people.

  8. ماذا على مصرَ من همٍّ يُؤرّقُهم

    إن بات عنهم أذاها وَهْوَ وَسْنانُ

    What worry over Egypt keeps them awake,

    If her suffering spends the night far from them, itself drowsy?

  9. ما مرَّ للحكم طيفٌ في وساوِسهم

    إلا وَعاودَهم شَوقٌ وتَحنانُ

    No phantom of rule passed through their obsessive thoughts

    Without longing and yearning returning to them.

  10. سلا المحبُّونَ فابتلَّتْ جوانحُهم

    وما لهم عنه طولَ الدهرِ سُلوانُ

    Lovers found solace, and their breasts were moistened,

    Yet they have no solace from it through all time.

  11. في كل جارحةٍ همٌّ يُطالعه

    من كل جانحةٍ للغيظِ بُركانُ

    In every limb is a sorrow, confronted

    From every rib by a volcano of rage.

  12. يا قيسُ ويَحكَ ليلى عنك في شُغُلٍ

    وأنت يا قيسُ صَبُّ القلب ولهانُ

    O Qays, alas for you! Layla is otherwise occupied,

    And you, O Qays, are lovesick at heart, distraught.

  13. وارحمتا لكَ ضاعت في الغرام سُدىً

    دُموعُ عينٍ لها سَحٌّ وتهتانُ

    Oh, pity for you! Wasted in love, in vain,

    Are the tears of an eye that streams and pours.

  14. لو في يدي رُقْيَةٌ أشفِي الصّريعَ بها

    إذن شفيتُك إنّ النّاسَ إخوانُ

    If I held a charm with which to heal the stricken,

    Then I would heal you: people are brothers.

  15. قومٌ مضى عهدُهم وانفضَّ مَلعبُهم

    لا كان ذلك من عهدٍ ولا كانوا

    A people whose era has passed and whose playground has emptied—

    May that era never have existed, nor they!

  16. يَغيظُهم بعد أن زالوا بباطلهم

    ألا يكونَ لغير الحقِّ سلطانُ

    It enrages them, after they vanished with their falsehood,

    That nothing but truth should wield authority.

  17. ما الحكمُ دستورُه عَدلٌ ومرحمةٌ

    كالحكم دستورُه ظلمٌ وطُغيانُ

    Rule whose constitution is justice and mercy is not

    Like rule whose constitution is oppression and tyranny.

  18. ما غرّهم بابن محمودٍ أما علموا

    أنّ الرئيس لمجدِ النّيلِ عُنوانُ

    What deceived them about Ibn Mahmoud? Did they not know

    That the leader is an emblem of the Nile's glory?

  19. ظنّوا الظنون ولجّوا في عَمايتهم

    وفي الحوادث للأقوامِ تِبيانُ

    They indulged in conjectures and persisted in their blindness,

    And events bring enlightenment to peoples.

  20. العدلُ مرماه والميزانُ في يده

    إن جار مُحتكِمٌ أو مال ميزانُ

    Justice is his aim, and the scales are in his hand,

    Should a litigant act unjustly, or a balance tilt.

  21. كاسٍ من الشرف العالي يُهيّجُه

    مَن يدّعِي المجدَ زُوراً وهو عُريانُ

    Clad in lofty honor, he is provoked

    By one who claims glory falsely while naked.

  22. ما زاده الحكمُ جاهاً إذ تقلَّدَهُ

    الجاهُ مُنبسِطٌ والذّكر رنّانُ

    Rule added no prestige to him when he assumed it;

    His prestige is widespread, and his renown rings out.

  23. هي الكنانةُ تدعوه فيُدرِكُها

    والخطبُ مُعترِكٌ والشّعبُ حيرانُ

    It is Egypt, the Quiver, that calls him, and he comes to her rescue,

    While calamity rages and the people are bewildered.

  24. تهوِي سفينتُها غرقَى فيرفعُها

    يجري بها وعوادي الدّهر طُوفانُ

    Her ship plunges, drowning, and he raises it,

    He sails it on while time's assaults are a deluge.

  25. شيخُ السّياسةِ لا شيخُ الأُلى جَهِلوا

    إنّ السياسةَ أنواعٌ وألوانُ

    A master of politics, not a master of the ignorant;

    Politics indeed has kinds and colors.

  26. أُصليهمُ اللَّوْمَ ناراً ثم يمنعني

    أَنْ ليس للقومِ ألبابٌ وأذهانُ

    I scorch them with blame as fire, but then I am restrained

    By the fact that these people have neither intellects nor minds.

  27. لا الحقُّ في رأيهم حقٌّ تدين له

    شُمُّ الجباهِ ولا البُهتانُ بهتانُ

    In their view, truth is no truth before which bow

    Lofty brows; nor is slander slander.

  28. القومُ مَوْتَى فإن كانت لهم صُحُفٌ

    فإنّما هي أجداثٌ وأكفانُ

    These people are dead; if they have newspapers,

    Then they are nothing but graves and shrouds.

  29. أَلستَ تُبصِرُها سُوداً مُذمَّمةً

    نُكْداً يُجلِّلُها خِزيٌ وخِذلانُ

    Do you not see them blackened and reviled,

    Wretched, mantled in disgrace and abandonment?

  30. يَعافُها كلُّ ذي لُبٍّ وتَمقُتُها

    من جِلّةِ القومِ أبصارٌ وآذانُ

    Every person of reason shuns them, and they are loathed

    By the eyes and ears of the people's foremost figures.

  31. يظلُّ يرقُبُ حُكمَ اللهِ في يدهِ

    إن مسَّها من ذوي الألبابِ إنسانُ

    He keeps awaiting God's judgment upon his hand,

    If any person of reason should touch them.

  32. خرائبُ الشُّؤمِ ما تنفكُّ ناعقةً

    تبكي بأرجائها بُومٌ وغِربانُ

    Ruins of ill omen, never ceasing to croak,

    Owls and crows weep throughout their precincts.

  33. زال العَمَى فإذا المعبودُ مِلْهَيَةٌ

    من الدُّمَى وإذا المحسود شيطانُ

    Blindness has gone; behold, the worshipped one is a plaything

    Among dolls; and behold, the envied one is a devil.

  34. سِرْ يا مُحمّدُ لا تُشغلك ضجّتُهم

    هل يُشغِلُ اللّيثَ أن تهتاجَ جِرذانُ

    Proceed, Muhammad; do not let their clamor distract you.

    Is the lion distracted when rats grow agitated?

  35. إنّا نَعُدُّكَ للجُلىَّ وأنت لها

    كُفْءٌ إذا قلَّ أكفاءٌ وأقرانُ

    We count on you for the greatest ordeal, and you are

    Equal to it when equals and peers are few.

  36. ابنِ الحياةَ لشعبٍ هان جانبُهُ

    إذ كلُّ شعبٍ له في العزّ بُنيانُ

    Build life for a people whose standing has been humbled,

    Since every people has an edifice of glory.

  37. الزرعُ حولك ذاوٍ والثّرى يَبِسٌ

    والعبقريّةُ أنهارٌ وخُلجانُ

    The crops around you are withered, and the soil is dry,

    And genius is rivers and gulfs.

  38. كم دفّق العلم فيّاض البيانِ له

    من العُقوق وسوءِ الصّنعِ سجّانُ

    How much knowledge one rich in eloquence has poured forth—he has

    A jailer in ingratitude and ill treatment.

  39. يا مُنصِفَ الشّعبِ مّمن كان يظلمه

    أنصِفْ قُوىً غَالَها ظُلمٌ وعُدوانُ

    O you who grant the people justice against whoever oppressed them,

    Grant justice to powers ravaged by oppression and aggression.

  40. قُوى البلادِ تُعينُ العاملينَ بها

    وما لها من وُلاةِ الأمرِ أعوانُ

    The country's powers help those who work within it,

    Yet they have no helpers among those in authority.

  41. هم عاقبونا بحرمانٍ وإن ضَمِنوا

    رِزقَ الأُلىَ لم نَهُنْ يوماً كما هانوا

    They punished us with deprivation, though they guaranteed

    The livelihood of those—we were never once as abased as they were.

  42. لا أكفُرُ اللهَ بعضُ البُؤسِ مَنقبةٌ

    للفاضلينَ وبعضُ الرزقِ حرمانُ

    I am not ungrateful to God: some hardship is an honor

    For the virtuous, and some sustenance is deprivation.

  43. الحكمُ عند ذوي الألبابِ أَربعةٌ

    عزمٌ وحزمٌ ومعروف وإحسانُ

    Governance, to those of understanding, is four things:

    Resolve, firmness, kindness, and beneficence.