رددي يا وقائع الدهر شعري

واشرحي ما رويت وهو عظيمُ

Repeat my verse, O events of time,

and explain what I have recounted; it is momentous.

وأعيدي إلى الصواب عقولاً

أعوزتها العظات والتقويمُ

And restore to sound judgment minds

that have lacked admonition and correction.

أنا من ذَكَّر العبادَ فلم يُص

غوا إلى أن أتى النذير الأليم

I am he who admonished mankind, yet they did not

heed until the grievous warning came.

وتلاهوا عن المقادير حتى

حل فيهم قضاؤها المحتوم

They diverted themselves from fate's decrees until

their inevitable sentence descended upon them.

شيعاً في البلاد ساروا وأحزا

باً وساوى الجهول فيها العليم

They went through the land as factions and parties,

and the ignorant there equaled the learned.

واستحال الذي تآخى عليه

من منال وزيرها والزعيم

What had united them in brotherhood now lay

beyond the reach of its minister and the leader.

والذي كان منه عذر نسيمٍ

بات يلقى الملام منه نسيم

What had once served Nasim as an excuse

now brings Nasim blame.

جرب الحكم أهله فلكل

من أذاه نصيبه المقسوم

Rule has tested its wielders, and each

has his allotted share of its harm.

والذي كان دأبه الحض والإغ

راء أمس ودأبه التنويم

He whose habit was exhortation and incitement

yesterday now makes lulling people to sleep his habit.

واكتفى بالسلامة اليوم من كا

ن يقول الردى ولا التسليم

Today he is content with safety, he who once

would say, 'Death rather than surrender!'

شغلته ولائم الصحب عن أع

بائه واستخفه التكريم

His companions' banquets distracted him from his burdens,

and honors went to his head.

والذي عنده له الأمس تحلي

لٌ له اليوم عنده تحريم

What he considered lawful yesterday

he considers forbidden today.

أين ما في الخريف كان تلقي

ه وماذا أعده المأزوم

Where is what was to be received in autumn,

and what has the crisis-stricken man prepared?

مر ماضي المرسوم بالقدر الجا

ري ولم يأت بعده مرسوم

The former decree passed with fate's onward course,

and no decree has come after it.

وانتهى الموعد الخفي إلى من

في يديه التأخير والتقديم

The undisclosed date was left to him

in whose hands lie delay and advancement.

ولقد عاد من نواه الذي ير

جى ويخشى رحيله والقدوم

He has indeed returned from his distant sojourn, he whose

departure and arrival are hoped for and feared.

فقد الشعب قادة الشعب من قب

ل ومن بعد فهو منهم يتيم

The people lost their leaders before,

and since, and are left orphaned without them.

وتخلى عن الصحيح من الرأ

ي وراج الخبيث فيها السقيم

They abandoned sound judgment,

and corrupt, unsound counsel flourished there.

ما لصحف العشيرة اليوم تهوي

بالعداوات بينها وتهيم

What ails the community's newspapers today, plunging

into mutual enmities and wandering astray?

وترى كاتب الكريهة يحتج

جُ على كاتب الهوى ويلوم

You see the writer of strife protesting

against the writer of passion and reproaching him.

عاب هذا سبيلَ هذا فكل

من أخيه مطارد مذموم

This one faults that one's path, so each

is hounded and condemned by his brother.

لا إلى مبدأ ولا ليقين

ضج صوت لهم ولجّ رقيم

Not for any principle, nor for conviction,

do their voices clamor and their writings insist.

والذي يطلب إئتلافاً وشملاً

آثم في قضائهم مأثوم

He who seeks accord and unity

is a sinner in their judgment, branded with guilt.

أعلنوا كل ما أسروا فلم يب

ق لهم مبهمٌ ولا مكتوم

They revealed all they had concealed; nothing

of theirs remained obscure or hidden.

من أذى كاتبين عانتْ بلادي

ما يعاني من حاكم محكوم

My country has suffered from writers' harm

what a subject suffers at a ruler's hands.

لذَّة العيش يطلبون بأقلا

م مراض أولى بها التحطيم

They seek life's pleasures with pens

that are diseased and deserve instead to be smashed.

والطعامُ المجلوب بالقول إفكاً

منه أولى بالقائل الزقوم

And food procured through lying words—

zaqqum would better suit the speaker than that.

ويح قومي من غالبٍ يدعى الإح

سانَ والعدلَ وهو عاتٍ ظلوم

Woe to my people from a conqueror claiming kindness

and justice, while he is insolent and oppressive.

يتمنونه حليفاً ليبقى

وهو فيهم مسيطر قيوم

They wish to have him as an ally, so that he may stay,

while he dominates them as their overseer.

فرقتنا الأهواءُ فيه وقد عا

دتْ هموماً وما نهتنا الهموم

Passions divided us over him, and they have turned

to sorrows, yet those sorrows have not restrained us.

وغداً بالزلازل الأرضُ تنهد

د وتهوي من السماء النجوم

Tomorrow the earth will collapse in earthquakes,

and the stars will fall from the sky.

وتطيرُ البطاحُ وهي لهيبٌ

وتثور الرياحُ وهيَ سَموم

The plains will fly up, all flame,

and the winds will rage as scorching blasts.

ضاقت المدن بالدخيل الذي حل

لَ وماجت بالزاحفين التخوم

The cities are cramped with the intruder who settled there,

and the frontiers surge with advancing forces.

وطغى حولَها مغيرٌ جديدٌ

وبغى بينها مغيرٌ قديم

A new raider runs rampant around them,

and an old raider oppresses within them.

كيف يغشى رحابها الفاتحُ المق

بل من بعد ما احتواها المقيم

How will the approaching conqueror enter their open spaces,

after the one already there has taken them over?

وبأي الساحات يقتتل المف

ترسان الغرثان والمنهوم

In which arenas will the two predators fight,

the famished and the insatiable?

ولمن تستمر سيناء والطو

ر مجازاً وتستقر السلوم

For whom will Sinai and al-Tur remain

a passage, and Sollum be secure?

ومن المالك القناة وحدي

ها ومجرى السفين حيث يروم

Who will own the Canal and both its banks,

and the passage of ships wherever he wishes?

ودفاعٌ عن البلاد القوَى المل

أَى بها أم على البلاد هجوم

Are the forces filling the country a defense of it,

or an assault upon the country?

غيرُ مغنٍ أنّا لقوم أخلا

ءُ وأنّا لآخرين خصوم

It avails us nothing that we are friends to some

and enemies to others.

عرضةٌ نحن نحمل الهازم الأع

باء منها ويشتفي المهزوم

We are vulnerable: for the victor we bear the burdens

it brings, while the defeated takes revenge.

لا نرى في السلام والحربِ إلا

ما يراه المسخَّرُ المحروم

In peace and war we see only

what the subjugated, deprived man sees.

وإذا ما احتمى من الناهب الإق

ليم بالناهب انتهى الإقليم

If a land seeks refuge from one plunderer

with another plunderer, that land is finished.

ومن الممكنات بعدئذ أن

يخلفَ الإنكليزَ فيها الروم

It may then happen that

the Romans succeed the English there.

ما الذي يبتغي من الحرب من يو

قدها وهو هادمٌ مهدوم

What does he seek from war who

kindles it, destroying and destroyed?

يحكم الناسَ بعد قتلهم أم

يستغلُ البلادَ وهي جحيم

Will he rule the people after killing them, or

exploit the land when it is an inferno?

هل له في الوعيد ما يتقيه

بعد ما ضاع عنده التحكيم

Is there anything in threats that he would fear,

after arbitration has been wasted on him?

فعسى يعقل الذي جن بالحر

ب جزافاً ويبرأ المحموم

May he regain reason who has gone mad for war

so recklessly; may the fevered man recover.

ويقي الخلقَ مدركوه خطوباً

هي أقوى مما جنى غليوم

May those who can reach him shield mankind from calamities

graver than what Wilhelm wrought.