1. هدىً سرت لا عيناً منعتِ ولا أذنا

    أحاديثكِ الحسنى ومطلعك الأسنى

    Huda, you journeyed, denying neither eye nor ear

    your lovely words and your most radiant rising.

  2. ذكرت بك الزهراءَ وهي ظعينةٌ

    تحفُّ قريشٌ ركبَها الطهرَ والظعنا

    Through you I recalled al-Zahra, traveling in her litter,

    Quraysh surrounding her pure caravan and its women travelers.

  3. ركبت إلى المجد السفينةَ سمحةً

    وسوف تقود السمحة ابنتك السفنا

    Graciously, you boarded the ship bound for glory,

    and your gracious daughter shall one day steer the ships.

  4. تظُلُّك أعلام البلادِ خوافقاً

    وقد عانقتها الوافدات وقبَّلْنَ

    The nation's flags shade you, fluttering,

    and the women delegates have embraced and kissed them.

  5. تغربتِ في العيد الذي اعتاد مثله

    جلالك والمعروفَ والرفق واليمنا

    You were abroad for the feast, whose like was accustomed to

    your grandeur, charity, gentleness, and blessings.

  6. خطبتِ فكانت حجةَ النسوة التي

    طلبن بها ما للرجال وأدركن

    You spoke, and your speech became the women's argument,

    with which they sought what men enjoyed, and attained it.

  7. رواها فأغلاها الزمان وشارفتْ

    بها أممُ الغرب ابنةَ المشرقِ الأدنى

    Time recounted it and made it precious; and through it drew near

    the nations of the West to the daughter of the Near East.

  8. ولو لم تصوغِيها كلاماً لكان من

    وقارِك معنىً ليس يبلغه معنى

    Had you not fashioned it into words, there would still have come from

    your dignity a meaning no other meaning could reach.

  9. فما عدتِ حتى أعجبت كل أمة

    بقومك وارتد العدوُّ لهم خدنا

    You did not return until you had filled every nation with admiration

    for your people, and their enemy had become their close friend.

  10. ومثَّلتهم في كل واد ملائكاً

    كراماً كما مثلتِ أرضَهم عدنا

    In every valley you portrayed them as angels,

    noble, just as you portrayed their land as Eden.

  11. وما كنت في المدن التي بك رحبتْ

    أقلَّ من الغازي الذي فتح المدنا

    In the cities that welcomed you, you were

    no less than the warrior who conquered cities.

  12. سرى البرق في الدنيا برأيك عالياً

    فمن عالم أطرى ومن عالم أثنى

    Lightning sped through the world, bearing your opinion aloft;

    one scholar extolled you, and another offered praise.

  13. رأيتكِ في المحرابِ أنقى سريرة

    وأكبرت في الميدان شأوَك والشأنا

    I saw you in the prayer niche, purest of heart,

    and in the arena I marveled at your reach and stature.

  14. ولو كان في واديك عشر عقائلٍ

    مثالك صرَّفن الأمورَ ودبرن

    Had there been ten noble women in your valley

    like you, they would have managed affairs and governed.

  15. أننسى وقد ثارت بمصرَ وأهلها

    عواصفُ أفزعن الأنامَ وأزعجن

    Shall we forget, when against Egypt and her people rose

    storms that terrified humanity and shook it,

  16. وسرتِ وسارتْ للجهاد حرائرٌ

    إلى النار والفولاذ خلفك يتبعن

    you marched, and freeborn women marched to the struggle,

    toward fire and steel, following behind you?

  17. فكم قابلتِ عز الوجوه مواضياً

    وكم لاقت الأعطاف خطارة لدنا

    How often, with proud faces, you confronted keen blades,

    and how often flanks met swaying, supple lances.

  18. وربَّ شهيدٍ للحمى وشهيدةٍ

    كفيتِ بما أوسيتِ أهلَهما الحزنا

    Many a man and woman martyred for the homeland—

    you spared both their families grief through the comfort you gave.

  19. فيا بنتَ سلطانٍ وأولِ واقفٍ

    على مِنبرِ الشورى سموتِ أباً وابنا

    O daughter of Sultan, the first to stand

    on the rostrum of consultation, you rose high in father and son.

  20. سعيتِ فأرضيتِ البلادَ وما خلت

    مساعيك ممن ضلَّ فيها ومن جنَّا

    You labored and pleased the nation; yet never free

    were your endeavors of those who strayed in them or did wrong.

  21. وإن الذي يدعو البنوَّةَ فتنةً

    خليقٌ به أن لا نقيم له وزنا

    And whoever calls the filial bond a cause of strife

    deserves that we give him no weight.

  22. فيا طيبَ دنياه ويا حسن دينهِ

    حمى بالذي أوليتِه اعتز واستغنى

    How blessed its worldly life, how fine its faith—

    a homeland grown mighty and self-sufficient through what you bestowed upon it.

  23. سلاسلَ تقليدٍ وأغلالَ عادةٍ

    كسرتِ ولا ضرباً شهدتِ ولا طعنا

    Chains of imitation and shackles of custom

    you shattered, without witnessing blows or spear-thrusts.

  24. محوتِ الذي خط القديم وما مضى

    وجئتِ بما خط الجديد وما سنّا

    You erased what antiquity had written and what was past,

    and brought what the new age had written and ordained.

  25. وما أنتِ إلا قدوة النسوةِ التي

    عرفن بها حقَّ البلاد عليهن

    You are none other than the women's model,

    through whom they learned their country's claim upon them.

  26. وأطيب واد ما تزكَّت نساؤه

    وأفضل ملك ما على خلق يبنى

    The finest valley is one whose women grow virtuous;

    the finest kingdom is one built on moral character.

  27. ولولا نساء الحي هِجنَ رجاله

    لما رفعوا رأساً ولا فتحوا جَفنا

    Had the women of the tribe not roused its men,

    they would never have raised their heads or opened an eyelid.

  28. سلام على الحور الحسان نواهضاً

    خفافاً بما أعيا الرجال وما أضنى

    Peace upon the lovely, wide-eyed women, rising

    lightly to what exhausted and wore down men.

  29. أرى بطلاً في خلقها غادةَ الحمى

    وإن أشبهتْ في خَلقها البدرَ والغصنا

    In character, I see the homeland's maiden as a hero,

    though in form she resembles the full moon and a bough.

  30. أنخشى عليها وهي أكبر خشية

    ونحرسها وهي التي تهب الأمنا

    Shall we fear for her, when she inspires the greatest fear,

    and guard her, when she herself grants safety?

  31. ونأبى عليها من خباءٍ خروجَها

    وكم سيرتْ جيشاً وكم فتحت حصنا

    And forbid her to leave a tent,

    when she has sent forth so many armies and captured so many forts?

  32. أيزهَد في الحسن السفور منزهاً

    ويغري بذات الحسن إخفاؤها الحسنا

    Does chaste unveiling lessen desire for beauty,

    while a beautiful woman's hiding her beauty arouses desire for her?

  33. وهل لامستْ شمساً يد أو تسلمت

    وكم بهرت عيناً وكم شغلت ذهنا

    Has any hand ever touched a sun, or grasped it,

    though it has dazzled so many eyes and occupied so many minds?

  34. وليس الحجابُ الصائنُ الخدرَ محكماً

    وليس النقابُ الحافظُ الخزَّ والقطنا

    The protective veil is not a securely shut chamber,

    nor is the safeguarding face veil silk and cotton.

  35. وما عفَّة الحسناءِ إلا غريزةٌ

    وما كان طبع النفس علماً ولا فنّا

    A beautiful woman's chastity is nothing but an instinct;

    nor has the soul's nature ever been a science or an art.

  36. ورب أبٍ ألقى إلى الزوج بنتَه

    لما ساق بيعاً ما تمَلَّكَ أو رَهْنا

    Many a father has handed his daughter to a husband

    as though offering what he owned for sale or as a pledge.

  37. فإن صانها حرصاً عليها وَغيرة

    أعدَّ ولم تذنب لها بيتَه سجنا

    If he guards her out of care and jealousy,

    he makes his house her prison, though she has done no wrong.

  38. تكاد لما تلقى من الرَيب عنده

    تسائله في كل هاجسةٍ إذنا

    Because of the suspicions she meets in him, she almost

    asks his permission for every passing thought.

  39. إذا طلبت حقاً من المرء مرأةٌ

    فمن حقها أن لا يسيء بها الظنا

    If a woman asks a man for a right,

    it is her right that he should not think ill of her.

  40. أتصنع ما لا يملك المرء صنعَه

    ويمنحها ربع الجزاء أو الثمنا

    Does she accomplish what a man cannot accomplish,

    only for him to grant her a quarter of the reward, or an eighth?

  41. لها ما له قولاً وفعلاً وغايةً

    فلا البغيَ يلقى الجانبان ولا الغبنا

    She has what he has, in word, deed, and purpose,

    so neither side encounters oppression or unfair loss.

  42. إذا كان إنسياً فإنسية له

    وإن كان جنّاً أصبحت عنده جنا

    If he is human, she is his human counterpart;

    and if he is a jinn, she becomes a jinn in his company.

  43. إذا عوّد الإنسان يسراهُ مثلما

    تعودتْ اليمنى استوت هي واليمنى

    If a person trains his left hand just as

    his right has been trained, left and right become equal.

  44. مضى مع أحبابي شبابي وصحتي

    فما شاقني روضٌ ولا راقني مَغنى

    My youth and health departed with my loved ones;

    no garden stirred my longing, no dwelling pleased me.

  45. سلام على القلب الذي أوشك الضنى

    يشاغله من بعد ما شَغَل البطنا

    Peace upon the heart that wasting sickness is about

    to beset, having already afflicted the belly.

  46. رضيت بأن تلقى وتَفنى جوانحي

    سقاماً ولا يبلى يقيني ولا يفنى

    I am content that my ribs should suffer and waste away

    with sickness, while my certainty neither wears out nor perishes.

  47. وعفت الرحيق السلسبيل وعدت من

    دمي ودموعي أجرع المالح السخنا

    I spurned the sweet-flowing nectar, and once again, from

    my blood and tears, gulped what was salty and hot.

  48. وعودني سقمي المبيتَ على الطوى

    ولو عرضوا السلوى أماميَ والمنّا

    My sickness accustomed me to spending the night hungry,

    even if they offered quails and manna before me.

  49. وما بيَ إلا رحمةٌ لمغرِّبٍ

    أحن إلى ملقاه شوقاً كما حنا

    My only affliction is compassion for one far from home;

    I yearn to meet him, longing as he has longed.

  50. ولم أنسه يوماً ولم ينسني وما

    ضننت عليه بالحياة ولا ضنا

    Not a day have I forgotten him, nor has he forgotten me; and

    I have not begrudged him my life, nor has he begrudged me his.

  51. وكل عليل يسترد حياته

    إذا ردّت الأيام ما أخذتْ منا

    Every ailing person regains his life

    when the days restore what they took from us.