نعم الضمان جلوسك الميمون — Ahmed Al Kashef

نعم الضمان جلوسك الميمونُ

للشرق وهو الآمن المأمونُ

An excellent pledge is your auspicious accession

for the East—a pledge secure and trusted.

في مثل هذا اليوم قامت حجة

واهتز برهان لمصر مبين

On a day like this, a proof arose,

and a clear demonstration stirred for Egypt.

قد كان ميعاد المنى فوفى به

قدرٌ يجلُّ وعوده ويصون

It was the promised hour of hopes, fulfilled

by a destiny that honors and safeguards its promises.

وأتاح للبلد الأمين متوجاً

حسنت به الدنيا وفاز الدين

And it granted the secure land a crowned ruler,

through whom the world grew fair and faith triumphed.

ذكرى جلوسك للرعية بهجة

ولتاج مصر وعرشها تمكين

The anniversary of your accession is joy to your subjects,

and strength to Egypt's crown and throne.

هذي الرسائل والوفود شواهد

أن الولاء عقيدة ويقين

These letters and delegations bear witness

that loyalty is a creed and a certainty.

فحديثه ليقينه متتبِّعٌ

وطريفه بتليده مقرون

Thus its utterance follows its conviction,

and its new is joined to its old.

في عيدك ابتهل العباد ضراعة

يتلمسون السلم وهو ثمين

On your festival the people prayed in supplication,

seeking peace, precious as it is.

أمنت بلايا الحرب مصر وإنها

أدنى إليها واصطلتها الصين

Egypt was spared war's calamities, although war

lay nearer her, while China suffered its flames.

كان الذي رضيت به من دهرها

واللّه مرضيها بما سيكون

What pleased her in her age was—

and God will please her with what is to come—

فضل الذي فيه استراح مجاهد

ونجا طريد واطمأن رهين

the grace of him in whom a fighter found rest,

a fugitive escaped, and a captive found peace,

وسلا به فيما تجشم عالم

جدت به محن وطال أنين

and through whom a world found solace amid its burdens,

as new ordeals befell it and lament grew long.

الناس تفنى والحديد غداً ولا

تفنى عوادي الناس وهي فنون

People and iron alike will perish tomorrow, yet

human ravages never perish, varied as they are.

يتقاتلون على حطيم زائل

ولربما قتل الخدين خدين

They fight one another over vanishing wreckage,

and often one companion has killed another.

وارحمتاه على شباب ممالك

غاضت ميادينٌ بهم وسنين

Alas for the young men of kingdoms,

whom battlefields and years have swallowed up.

كانوا أماني أهلِهم وديارهم

فدهتمُ قبل المنون منون

They were the hopes of their families and homelands,

but death overtook them before their destined end.

حتام تحوي في القبور كواكب

واليوم ترتشف السموم غصون

How long will stars be enclosed in graves,

while today branches sip poisons?

وإلام يحرق عالَمٌ متألق

وإلام يغرق ماخر مشحون

And how long will a radiant world be burned,

and how long will a laden, wave-cleaving vessel be sunk?

وإلام يطمع هادم في موحش

ترتاع منه بصائر وعيون

And how long will a destroyer seek some horror

at which minds and eyes recoil?

غاض الدم المسفوك حتى كاد من

جزع يسابقه الدم المحقون

The spilled blood has ebbed, till, out of

panic, blood still spared almost races ahead of it.

وأشد من نار الوغى وحديدها

شجو على شهدائها وشجون

And harsher than battle's fire and iron

is grief for its martyrs, and sorrow upon sorrow.

لو يستطيع العالم المسكون ما

حمل الأنام العالم المسكون

If the inhabited world could, it would not

bear humankind—this inhabited world—

مستغنياً بالصخر لا يهتاجه

للسيئات وساوسٌ وظنون

content with rocks, unstirred

to evil by whisperings and suspicions.

لم يجن جهلٌ ما جنى العلم الذي

جاز المدى فارتد وهو جنون

Ignorance never wrought the harm wrought by knowledge

that passed all bounds, then returned as madness.

ذنب جناه على البسيطة أهلها

لتنوء أجيال به وقرون

A sin the earth's inhabitants committed against it,

for generations and centuries to stagger beneath.

أمسوا ومما أحدثوا من نارها

حوت ومن فولاذها شاهين

Now among what they have fashioned from its fire

is a whale, and from its steel a falcon.

وغدا مكان ثمارها المقذوف وال

مشبوب والمشحوذ والمسنون

And in place of its fruits came projectiles and things

set ablaze, sharpened, and whetted.

لو أغنت الحق الشرائع والنهى

ما أعوزته كتائب وحصون

Had laws and reason sufficed to uphold the right,

it would have needed no battalions or fortresses.

يا ويل قوم نال منهم صارم

ما لم ينله منهم القانون

Woe to a people upon whom a keen sword inflicted

what the law had never inflicted on them.

أولى بمن أكل الحشا حياً ومن

شرب الدم الزقّوم والغسلين

More fitting for one who ate entrails in life, and one who

drank blood, are zaqqum and ghislin.

من للقويّ البأس أليق غير من

يقوى به المظلوم والمغبون

Who is worthier of formidable might than one

through whom the oppressed and cheated grow strong?

يرجو الضعيف الحول من عقباه ما

يخشى المذلُّ بحوله المفتون

The powerless hope his outcome will bring what

the oppressor, infatuated with his power, fears.

الفتح أعجز أن يسر مملَّكاً

يبكي سليبٌ حوله وطعين

Conquest cannot gladden a crowned ruler

while the despoiled and wounded weep around him.

والعزل بالملك الظلوم أحق من

حكم يعيب فتوحه ويشين

And a tyrant king deserves deposition more than

a rule that mars and disgraces his conquests.

وأحق بالجيش العظيم ونصره

من جيشه التأمين والتمدين

And more deserving of a mighty army and its victory

is one whose army brings security and civilization.

أنذرت بالحرب العوان وعنَّ لي

من كل شعب سره المكنون

I warned of war renewed, and there appeared to me

the hidden secret of every people.

والآن أحلم باليمين تمدها

للصلح من خلف الستار يمين

And now I dream of a right hand extended

for peace by a right hand from behind the curtain.

يدنو الفريق من الفريق ويستوي

في كل دعوى دائن ومدين

One side draws near the other, and on equal terms stand

in every claim, creditor and debtor.

وعسى المعين على الجرائم والأذى

يمسي على الإحسان وهو معين

And may the one who aided crimes and harm

become a helper in doing good.

صلح إلى طول المدى لا هدنة

فيها يجدد بطشه الموهون

A peace to endure for ages, not a truce

in which the weakened one renews his violence.

صلح يوفق بين أهل الأرض لا

صلح مذل للضعيف مهين

A peace reconciling the people of the earth, not

a peace that humiliates and degrades the weak.

كلٌّ يودُّ السلم لولا خوفه

أن السلام مكيدة وكمين

All desire peace, were it not for their fear

that peace is a stratagem and an ambush.

نادى من الأرض الجديدة فردها

ورئيسها وحكيمها ولسون

From the New World its peerless man called out,

its president and its sage, Wilson,

يرجو الذي بالرفق عيسى ناله

بالبأس موسى بالغنى قارون

hoping for what Jesus attained through gentleness,

Moses through might, Qarun through wealth.

يضع القيود لكل ذي تاج فلا

يبغي على عهد الإخاء خؤون

He sets restraints upon every crowned head, so that

no traitor violates the covenant of brotherhood.

قامت قيامة كل مملكة ومن

بعد القيامة يرجع التكوين

Every kingdom's apocalypse has come, and

after the apocalypse, creation returns.

ويعود هذا الخلق خلقاً طيباً

من طبعه التقويم والتحسين

And this creation will become a wholesome creation,

whose nature is to set right and improve.

يرعى ويرحم بعضهم بعضاً فلا

ثأر ولا غل هناك دفين

They will care for and show mercy to one another, with no

vengeance and no buried rancor there.

للملك عندك يا فؤاد مسائل

كبرى كما ترجو له وشئون

With you, O Fuad, kingship has its tasks—

great ones, as you hope for it—and its affairs.

في كل يوم من زمانك موسم

للمخلصين يسرهم ويزين

Every day of your time is a festival

for the devoted, delighting and adorning them.

وإذا أردت فإن مصر خميلة

وإذا أردت فإن مصر عرين

And if you wish, Egypt is a leafy grove;

and if you wish, Egypt is a lion's den.

العام وضَّاح المحيا مقبل

والآس بين يديه والنسرين

The year approaches, its face radiant,

with myrtle and wild roses before it.

طربت ببشراه البلاد وهزها

شوق إلى آمالها وحنين

The country rejoiced at its glad tidings and was stirred

by longing and yearning for its hopes.

يهدي السلام إلى الأنام وسيمة

أيامه ولكل أمر حين

It brings peace to humankind; fair are

its days, and every matter has its time.