رحيل بعزم الفاتحين سعيد — Ahmed Al Kashef

رحيل بعزم الفاتحين سعيدُ

وعَودٌ بمجد الظافرين حميدُ

An auspicious departure with conquerors' resolve,

and a praiseworthy return with victors' glory.

طلعت على الوادي الخصيب ودونه

مواكبُ من آماله ووفود

You rose over the fertile valley, and before it stood

processions of its hopes and delegations.

وسرتَ إلى السودان ترعى غراسه

وبالثمرات الطيبات تعود

You traveled to Sudan, tending its plantings,

and return with wholesome fruits.

تنافس فيك الجوُّ والبرُّ رغبة

فراق نزولٌ فيهما وصعود

Air and land vied eagerly for you,

so descent and ascent in both were a delight.

وتابعك النيلُ الوفيُّ وأومأت

إليك جسور فوقَه وسدود

The faithful Nile followed you, and there beckoned

to you bridges above it and dams.

ومد إليك الساحلان رباهُما

وحيّاك ريفٌ فيهما وصعيد

The two banks stretched their hills toward you,

and countryside and upland on both greeted you.

تعهدتَه مستكملاً خيرَ أهله

وزار الأوداءَ الكرامَ ودود

You tended it, seeking its people's fullest welfare,

and a loving friend visited noble friends.

فكانت وجوه القوم تبيضُّ بهجةً

بما أنت راجيه لهم ومريد

So the people's faces brightened with joy

at what you hope and wish for them.

ففي كل نجد في غُدوِّك موسمٌ

وفي كل سهل في رواحك عيد

On every upland, your morning passage brought a festival,

and on every plain, your evening passage brought a feast.

ولو لم تجئهم طائرَ الركبِ لانثنت

إليك جبال وانطوت لك بيد

Had you not come to them, flying with your company, there would have bowed

mountains toward you, and deserts would have folded themselves for you.

حملتَ إليهم من يد المَلِكِ الندى

وشارفتَ أقصى المُلْكِ وهو مديد

You brought them bounty from the king's hand,

and approached the realm's farthest reaches, vast as it is.

وأشهدَهُ فيهم مطافك ما سرى

إليه به برقٌ وسار بريد

Your tour among them let him witness what had sped

to him by telegraph and been carried by courier.

وكادت تعود اليومَ كلُّ قبيلةٍ

له دولةٌ مما لمصرَ يشيد

And today each tribe all but became once more

a realm of his, through what he builds for Egypt.

وتمَّ له سلطانُهُ في ربوعهم

كما ودَّ آباءٌ له وجدود

His sovereignty became complete in their lands,

as his fathers and grandfathers had wished.

علائقُ إخوان وأسباب جيرة

أعادتْ قديمَ العهد وهو جديد

Bonds of brotherhood and ties of neighborliness

restored the old covenant, now made new.

فهم يرسلون الماء فيضاً مباركاً

وإنا لحراسٌ له وورود

They send the water in a blessed flood,

and we are indeed its guardians and those who come to drink.

جمعتَ بني الوادي على ما أعزه

وأكبرَ بيضٌ ما صنعتَ وسود

You united the valley's sons around what exalted it,

and white and black alike extolled what you had done.

وجاءتك بالأحزاب نجواك فالتقت

وما بينها إلا لمصر عهود

Your private counsel brought the parties to you, and they united,

with nothing between them but pledges to Egypt.

فكل فريق للفريق مؤيِّدٌ

وكل زعيم للزعيم نديد

Each party supports the other party,

and each leader is the other leader's peer.

ولم تبتدر بالرأي حتى دعمتَه

ببأسك في الميدان وهو شديد

Nor did you advance your counsel before you had reinforced it

with your might in the field, formidable as it is.

فكل مكان فيه حصنٌ ومعقلٌ

وفي كلِّ فجٍّ قادةٌ وجنود

Every place in it has a fortress and a stronghold,

and every mountain pass has commanders and troops.

ثبت بواديك المنيع وحوله

ممالكُ شتّى تلتوي وتميد

You stood firm in your impregnable valley, while around it

diverse kingdoms writhe and sway.

تساوى جميعُ الناس في أزماتها

فما في مضيق سادةٌ وعبيد

All people became equal in their crises;

in dire straits there are no masters and slaves.

إذا ما أتى في الليل وعدٌ مبشِّرٌ

أتى من نذيرٍ في الصباح وعيد

Whenever a promise of glad tidings comes by night,

a threat comes in the morning from a warner.

وإن طلعتْ في العالم الشمسُ ساعةً

تلتها بروقٌ ساعةً ورعود

And if the sun rises upon the world for an hour,

flashes of lightning and peals of thunder follow it for an hour.

فلا طاعة في الأرض إلا لشرِّ ما

قضتْ بينهم نارٌ به وحديد

There is no obedience on earth save to the worst of what

fire and iron have decreed among them.

تعادوا وما يدرون في الأرض نازعوا

ليستعمروا أم نازعوا ليبيدوا

They became enemies, not knowing whether they fought on earth

to colonize, or fought to annihilate.

وما كنت أدري أن أبناءَ آدمٍ

نسورٌ وحيتانٌ همُ وأسود

I had not known that Adam's children

were vultures and whales and lions.

وقد أصبح الإنسان وهو مثقَّفٌ

أضرَّ من الشيطان وهو مريد

Man has become, cultured though he is,

more harmful than Satan, rebellious as he is.

وإني لأخشى الحربَ في الأرض كلِّها

فتسمى وما للعالمين وجود

And I fear war throughout the earth,

lest it be called war when none of the world's peoples remain.

ومن أوقد النيران في الحيِّ عامداً

فقد بات للنيران وهو وقود

Whoever deliberately kindles fires in the settlement

has himself become fuel for those fires.

وما الأرضُ للتنكيل والفتكِ مُهِّدَتْ

ولكنها للعيش وهو رغيد

The earth was not laid out for torment and slaughter,

but for a life of ease and plenty.

وما خلق اللّه الهواءَ ودونه

شروط على استنشاقه وقيود

Nor did God create the air subject to

conditions on breathing it and restrictions.

وما بسط الخلاقُ أرزاق مَعشرٍ

ليعدوَ جبارٌ عليه عنيد

Nor did the Creator spread out a people's sustenance

for a stubborn tyrant to prey upon them.

وما ساد شعبٌ بالكريهة والأذى

ولكنه بالصالحات يسود

No people gained greatness through hateful deeds and harm;

rather, through good deeds it gains greatness.

وإن مواثيقَ الشعوب مرافقٌ

فما هي كُتْبٌ تنطوي وعقود

The covenants of nations are means of common benefit,

not mere papers folded away and contracts.

ولو ذهبوا بالرفق في الأرض أصبحتْ

تمدُّ لهم أطرافَها وتزيد

Had they dealt gently on earth, it would have begun

to stretch its reaches out for them and grow.

ولو أمنوا فيها العداوةَ بينهم

لزالتْ تخومٌ بينهم وحدود

Had they been safe from enmity among themselves upon it,

frontiers and boundaries between them would have vanished.

ومن أين للعمران هودٌ وصالحٌ

إذا عبثتْ عادٌ به وثمود

Where can civilization find a Hud and a Salih

when Ad and Thamud wreak havoc upon it?

فهل تعدِل الأقدار أم أنا حالم

وتلك أمانيٌّ خلتْ ووعود

Will fate be just, or am I dreaming,

and these but bygone wishes and promises?

فيا رجل الوقت الذي من ضميره

لمصرَ عليه حاكمٌ وشهيد

O man of the hour, whose conscience

is Egypt's judge and witness over him:

حليفكَ من ساويته وكلاكما

مفادٌ بما أبرمتماه مفيد

Your ally is one you treat as your equal, and each of you

receives and gives benefit through what you both concluded.

وأنت بما دبَّرته في طريقه

رقيب على ما في الغيوب عتيد

And, in the course of what you have planned, you are

a ready watcher over what lies unseen.

وحسبك من فاروق أنك عنده

لكل صنيع محسن ومجيد

It is enough for you from Farouk that, in his eyes,

you do good and excel in every undertaking.

وما الحكم إلا عبءُ قومٍ حملتَه

وأن الذي فوق الوطيد وطيد

Rule is only a people's burden you have shouldered,

and what stands on firm foundations is itself firm.

وما أنت معتز به اليوم فيهمُ

وأنت لهم بالنفس فيه تجود

Nor do you boast of it among them today,

while you give your very self to it for their sake.

ومن ضمن العقبى له من زمانه

تساوى قريبٌ عنده وبعيد

And for one whose times have guaranteed his final outcome,

near and far are equal in his eyes.

وإني لعونُ المصلحين أُجلُّهم

بشعريَ في الأمصار وهو خلود

I am indeed a helper of reformers, whom I honor

with my verse throughout the lands—and it is immortality.