1. مصاب الحمى والشعب فيك أم الحربُ

    يعاني الحمى فيها الشدائدَ والشعبُ

    Is this the homeland's and people's loss of you, or a war

    in which the homeland and people endure hardships?

  2. وما الرعب من نار العدى وحديدهم

    ولكنه من هول فرقتك الحرب

    The terror is not from enemies' fire and steel,

    but from the horror of losing you—a war in itself.

  3. تلقَّيتُ أنباء الشفاء مريحة

    فلم أمس حتى جاء في الخبر الصعب

    I received reassuring news of your recovery;

    but before evening, bitter tidings had arrived.

  4. فنحت وناح الطير حولي وماج بي

    مكاني وغاض الماء والتهب العشب

    I wailed, the birds around me wailed, and beneath me heaved

    the ground; the water ebbed, and the grass burst into flame.

  5. وأصدق باك في النوائب من بكى

    على شامخ يهوي ومؤتلق يخبو

    And the truest mourner in calamity is one who weeps

    over a towering figure falling and a radiant light fading.

  6. طلبت بجد الربض والوثب غاية

    فلما انقضى الأمر استوى الربض والوثب

    You sought a goal, earnestly crouching and leaping;

    when all was over, crouching and leaping were alike.

  7. ونازعك الجنبين شغلك والضنى

    فهذا له جنب وهذا له جنب

    Your work and wasting illness fought over your two sides:

    this had one side, and that had the other.

  8. وقاسيت جهد الدفع والجذب فيهما

    فلم تسترح حتى انقضى الدفع والجذب

    You endured the strain of their pushing and pulling,

    and rested only when pushing and pulling ceased.

  9. ذهبت شهيد الداء بعد معارك

    طوالٍ وما فيها طعانٌ ولا ضرب

    You departed, a martyr to illness, after battles

    long, with neither lance-thrusts nor blows.

  10. وكم حملت تلك الجوانح لوعةً

    وأنت بعقبى قومك المغرم الصب

    How often those ribs bore burning sorrow,

    while you were the ardent, devoted lover of your people's future.

  11. وكيف يصيب الطب في الناس علة

    وقد خانهم في دفع علتك الطب

    And how can medicine cure an ailment in others,

    when medicine failed them in warding off your illness?

  12. خلا منك بيت المجد والنيل والندى

    ونادي المعالي أم خلا الشرق والغرب

    The house of glory, the Nile, and bounty are empty of you,

    and the gathering place of high deeds—or are East and West empty?

  13. وضمك داج في ثرى الأرض موحش

    وكم ضاق عن آمالك العالم الرحب

    A dark, desolate grave enfolded you in the earth's soil;

    how often the spacious world was too narrow for your hopes!

  14. وإنيَ من مثوى الهدى وهو قبلتي

    قريب وهل يغني من الصامت القرب

    And I, whose qibla is the resting place of guidance,

    am close by; but what use is nearness to the silent?

  15. أطوف به مستروحاً من عبيره

    وقد صبَّحته من بواكرها السحب

    I circle it, seeking refreshment from its fragrance,

    and clouds have greeted it at dawn with their earliest showers—

  16. فرائض من أرضَى العباد صنيعه

    وكرَّم في الدنيا مكانتَه الرب

    tributes due to one whose deeds pleased humankind,

    and whose station the Lord honored in this world.

  17. ولو كان جثمان الكريم كذكره

    لما نال من جثمانك الطاهر الترب

    If a noble man's body were like his remembrance,

    dust would never have touched your pure body.

  18. أحنُّ إلى الماضي وما هو راجع

    وقد سار بي فيما أحاذره الركب

    I yearn for the past, but it will not return;

    the caravan has carried me into what I dread.

  19. كأنّيَ حادي الظاعنين يمرّ بي

    بلا رجعة سربٌ ويتركني سرب

    As though I were the departing travelers' camel-driver: past me passes

    one company, never to return, and another company leaves me.

  20. صبرت على رزئي وخطبيَ فيهمُ

    وما هان فيك الرزء عنديَ والخطب

    I bore patiently my bereavement and affliction in losing them,

    but my bereavement and affliction in losing you have not grown light.

  21. ومن لي بأن ألقى محياك ثانياً

    وقد قامت الأستار دونك والحجب

    And who can grant me that I see your face again,

    when curtains and veils stand between me and you?

  22. تعللت بعد الأربعين بسلوة

    فمرت وأشجاني كما هي والكرب

    I comforted myself with hopes of solace after the forty days;

    they passed, but my sorrows and anguish remained unchanged.

  23. وقد جاء للذكرى الوفيون والتقى

    شيوخهم الأبرار والفتية النجب

    The faithful have come for remembrance, and there have met

    their righteous elders and noble youths.

  24. يفيضون بالنجوى حناناً ورحمة

    إليك وما النجوى ضجيج ولا صخب

    They pour forth whispered communion, tender and merciful,

    toward you; such communion is neither clamor nor uproar.

  25. تواصوا بما استرعيتهم وهو بيتهم

    إلى الأبد السعيُ الموفَّق والدأب

    They urged one another to guard what you entrusted them with—their home—

    with well-guided striving and tireless labor forever.

  26. فخذ من دموعي ما تشاء ومن دمي

    فعيني كما عاهدتها لك والقلب

    Take, then, from my tears whatever you wish, and from my blood;

    my eye is yours, true to your pact with it, and so is my heart.

  27. وإن كان عندي الآن من حقك الجوى

    فقد كان من حقي بك التيه والعجب

    And if burning grief is now your due from me,

    then pride and exultation in you were once my due.

  28. وساير شعري عدل حكمك والتقى

    على الخير ما تصبو إليه وما أصبو

    My poetry kept pace with your just judgment, and there met

    in goodness your aspirations and mine.

  29. وما عرض الدنيا لديك أمانتي

    ولكنه الوجدان عندك واللب

    What I entrusted to you was no worldly possession,

    but inward feeling and reason in your keeping.

  30. وأنت الذي سار الأعزة حوله

    فلا حزمهم يكبو ولا رأيهم ينبو

    You were the one around whom the noble marched,

    their resolve never faltering, their judgment never straying.

  31. وأيدك الأحرار من كل جانب

    بعزم الأولى شابوا وعزم الأولى شبّوا

    Free men supported you from every side,

    with the resolve of those grown gray and the resolve of those grown young.

  32. وكم بطل أغنى عن السيف رأيه

    مضاء وأغنت عن كتائبه الكتب

    How many a hero's judgment has made the sword needless

    by its incisiveness, and letters have replaced his battalions.

  33. ولو شئت في واديك من بأس أهله

    لرد العوادي نجدة دونه هبّوا

    Had you wished, in your valley, to summon its people's might

    as aid against invaders, they would have risen to its defense.

  34. ولاسمك وهو اسم الكرامة ما جرت

    به في مجاريها الكواكب والشهب

    And your name—the name of dignity—possesses what

    the stars and meteors bear along their courses.

  35. ومن كان في كل الضمائر خالداً

    فما تُعْوِزُ الخلدَ التماثيلُ والنصب

    Whoever is immortal in every conscience—

    then immortality lacks no statues or monuments.

  36. وكل زعيم سار سيرك في الحمى

    فآثاره أشياعه فيه والحزب

    Every leader who follows your path in the homeland—

    his followers and party there are his enduring monuments.

  37. ومن يترك الدنيا وكان تراثه

    محامده للعقب ضاعفه العقب

    Whoever leaves the world, having left as his legacy

    his virtues to posterity—posterity will multiply that legacy.

  38. ومن لم تمكنه من المجد نفسه

    فليس له إلا على نفسه العتب

    Whoever cannot attain glory through his own soul

    has only himself to blame.

  39. ومن لم يكن للملك بالروح فادياً

    فليس له فيه طعام ولا شرب

    Whoever will not sacrifice his soul for the realm

    has neither food nor drink within it.

  40. وما الجدب فقدان الحمى ثمراته

    ولكنّ فقدان الرجال هو الجدب

    Drought is not the homeland's loss of its fruits;

    rather, the loss of men is drought.

  41. تكاد تشب الحرب في الأرض كلها

    فلا يابس يبقى عليها ولا رطب

    War is about to blaze across the whole earth,

    so nothing dry or green will remain upon it.

  42. سباعاً يسير الناس فيها ضوارياً

    ففي جهةٍ ليثٌ وفي جهة ذئب

    People move across it as ravening beasts of prey:

    a lion in one quarter, a wolf in another.

  43. يريدونها نهباً وهم يهدمونها

    وليس سوى الأطلال بينهم النهب

    They seek to plunder it while they demolish it,

    though only ruins remain as plunder among them.

  44. فليتك يوم الصلح بين شهوده

    لتمحوَ بعد الحرب ما جنت الحرب

    Would that you were among the witnesses on the day of peace,

    to erase, after the war, what war has wrought,

  45. ويكمل للوادي من الدهر حقه

    قضاؤك فيه لا السؤال ولا الغصب

    and that the valley's due from time might be fulfilled

    by your judgment there, not by entreaty or usurpation.

  46. وإن كان ذنب الدهر أنك غائب

    ففي الحاضر الموجود قد غفر الذنب

    And if time's sin is that you are absent,

    then in the one now here that sin has been forgiven.

  47. وحسبك بعد الطيبات خلائقاً

    شقيقاك والنجلان والأهل والصحب

    Sufficient for you, besides your noble traits, are

    your two brothers, your two sons, your family, and your friends.

  48. تركتهمُ للخير بعدك أخوةً

    تؤلِّفهم فيه الرعاية والحب

    You left them after you as brothers in goodness,

    bound together in it by care and love.

  49. وكل مكان بينهم لك أجملوا

    جميلك فيه عامريهمُ خصب

    And every place of yours among them they have adorned

    with your kindness; abundance blesses their dwellers.

  50. سجايا كرام يعملون وما لهم

    سوى عزة الأوطان غنم ولا كسب

    Traits of noble souls who labor and have

    no gain or profit but their homelands' honor.