عيد وماذا سرني فأنادي

ذهب الرجاء من الحبيس الصادي

A feast day! Yet what has gladdened me, that I should call out?

Hope has left the thirsty captive.

وبأي تبيان أهنِّئُ معرضاً

لا يقبلنَّ شفاعة الأعياد

And with what words can I congratulate one who turns away,

who will not accept the intercession of feast days?

ما لي إذا لم ألق عندك موضعاً

ولهذه الأعلام والأجناد

If I find no place with you, what have I to do

with these banners and troops?

عرف الوزير الفارسي مكانتي

في دولة الإنشاء والإنشاد

The Persian minister recognized my standing

in the realm of prose composition and poetic recitation.

وأثابني ذاك الغريب لما رأى

من عزتي وسجيتي وجهادي

And that foreigner rewarded me for what he saw

of my dignity, my character, and my striving.

لولا محبته إليك وشعره

لم أعترف يوماً له بأياد

Were it not for his love for you and his poetry,

I would never have acknowledged his favors.

والرزق ميسور ولولا نخوتي

ومروءتي أصبحت رق جواد

Livelihood is readily found; were it not for my pride

and my honor, I would have become a generous man's slave.

قربت شاعرك الجليل فما اقتدى

بك واحدٌ من أهل هذا الوادي

You brought your illustrious poet close, yet no one followed

your example among the people of this valley.

ما زلت للأشعار تكرمه وما

لك غير ملتفت إلى الأنداد

You have always honored him for his poems; and why

do you pay no heed to his peers—

نائين مضطربين لولا رفقهم

وحنانهم كانوا من الزهاد

distant and troubled? Were it not for their gentleness

and their affection, they would have been ascetics.

لا يسألونك مرة إقطاعهم

أرضاً وحسبهمُ قليل حصاد

They do not ask you, even once, to grant them

land; a meager harvest is enough for them.

جعلوا فداك نفوسهم وتعرضوا

لغريمك الجبار في الميعاد

They made their lives a ransom for you and exposed themselves

to your tyrannical adversary at the appointed time.

واستجمعوا لبقية لولاهمُ

ذهبت تصاريفٌ بها وعواد

And they rallied for a remnant which, but for them,

the turns of fortune and calamities would have swept away.

قد نزهوك عن الشريك وأكبروا

قطريك عن حام سواك وفاد

They have exalted you above any partner, and deemed

your two lands too great for any protector or redeemer but you.

جعلوا وجوههمُ صحائف ودِّهم

وسوادَ أعينهم أعزَّ مداد

They made their faces pages of their affection,

and the black of their eyes the most precious ink.

ويبشرون بلادهم بنجاتها

وحياتها والبيض في الأغماد

And they bring their country glad tidings of its salvation

and its life, while bright swords remain in their scabbards.

ويرون لينك للدخيل وإن قسا

حق الضيوف عليك والرواد

And they deem your gentleness toward the outsider, even if he is harsh,

a right you owe to guests and visitors.

فاعطف على نصحاء شعب صاغر

ما زال بين سواعد ومهاد

So show compassion to the sincere counselors of a humbled people,

still between arms and a cradle.

فالشعر مفتقر إلى ذي نجدة

ولربما استغنى عن النقاد

For poetry needs a champion,

and may well do without critics.

إن شئت فهو صناعة كسبية

كصناعة النجار والحداد

If you wish, it is an acquired craft,

like the craft of the carpenter and the blacksmith.

وإذا أردت فإنه وحي كما

نزل الكتاب على نبيٍّ هاد

And if you wish, it is revelation, just as

the Book descended upon a guiding prophet.

هل نال إسماعيلُ من شعرائه

ما نلت من شعرائك الأمجاد

Did Ismail receive from his poets

what you have received from your illustrious poets—

الواهبي ألبابهم وقلوبهم

لبناء مملكة ورفع عماد

those who give their minds and hearts

to building a kingdom and raising its pillars?

أيكون وردك زاخراً متضرِّباً

ويُذاد عنه أطهرُ الوراد

Can your watering place be brimming and surging,

while the purest of those who come to drink are driven from it?

أم يرحلنَّ عن الرياض حمامُها

والنسر ممسٍ في الرياض وغاد

Or shall the gardens' doves depart from them,

while the vulture spends dusk and dawn in the gardens?

أرأيتَ مصر غنية عنهم فما

لهمُ سوى السودان خير عتاد

Do you think Egypt has no need of them? Then

they have no better resource than Sudan.

إن فاتهم في الخطب حظهمُ فما

يرجون من أرض هناك جماد

If their share eludes them in the crisis, what

can they hope for from lifeless land out there?

وأَحَرُّ من صحرائها ورمالها

شوق القلوب إليك والأكباد

And hotter than its desert and its sands

is the yearning of hearts and livers for you.

ما قدر ذي الألقاب يخلو كيسه

من درهمين وداره من زاد

What worth has a titled man whose purse lacks

even two dirhams, and whose home lacks provisions?

أي النوازع فيك غيَّر فطرتي

وبأي إحسان ملكت قيادي

Which impulse in you has changed my nature,

and by what kindness have you taken control of my reins?

أحسبتني أحد الذين حرمتهم

فتذرعوا بالإفك والإفساد

Did you think me one of those whom you deprived,

who then resorted to falsehood and corruption—

ووهبتهم فتهافتوا ومنعتهم

فسطوا بألسنةٍ هناك حداد

you gave to them and they rushed forward; you withheld from them,

and there they lashed out with sharp tongues?

كن كيف شئتَ فطاعتي لك والرضى

سيان في التقريب والإبعاد

Be as you wish: my obedience to you and my contentment

are unchanged, whether you draw me near or keep me far.

ما الشعر إلا آية لك ينجلي

فيها مثال شمائلي وسدادي

Poetry is but a sign for you, revealing

within it the image of my character and my rectitude.

إن غبتُ فالذكر الذي ترضى وإن

أحضرْ فملء نواظر الأشهاد

If I am absent, the mention of me pleases you; and if

I am present, I fill the eyes of those who witness.

فليهن مصرك مهرجانك وليبت

أوفى دعائك في أسىً وسهاد

So may your Egypt rejoice in your festival, and may

your most faithful well-wisher spend the night in sorrow and sleeplessness.

قعدت به عن زينةٍ ومواكبٍ

شكوى العليل وزحمة العوّاد

He was kept from finery and processions

by the sick man's suffering and the throng of visitors.

لم يغن إسراري إليك شكايتي

وقد انتهيت بها إلى الإرعاد

Confiding my complaint privately to you did no good,

and I have now carried it as far as thunder.

إن الذي استعصى على عذّاله

لا يرهبنَّ شماتة الحساد

Indeed, one who has defied his reproachers

will never fear the gloating of the envious.