أين البيان عساي أشرح ما بي

لك يا شهيد العلم والآدابِ

Where are the words, that I might explain what ails me

To you, O martyr of learning and letters?

فوجئت يوم نعيت فيك بشاغل

عن كل مكروه وكل مصاب

The day your death was announced, grief for you stunned me,

Distracting me from every sorrow and every calamity.

وأثار أعصابي العليلة بعد ما

سكنت وحسبي علة الأعصاب

And stirred my ailing nerves after they

Had quieted; my nervous ailment is burden enough.

ولقد ذكرتك بعد نعيك مشفقاً

ذكر المحب لأفضل الأحباب

And I remembered you after news of your death, with tender concern,

As one who loves remembers the best of loved ones.

وبعثت بالنجوى إليك فلم تجب

وتكفل الناعي برد كتابي

And I sent my whispered confidences to you, but you did not answer;

And the bearer of death's news undertook to answer my letter.

حملته روعات عذرك بعد ما

سارت إليك سرائري بعتابي

The terrors of your excuse impelled him, after

My inmost thoughts had gone to you with my reproach.

ووفى بحقك راثياً لك من وفى

لِحجاك بالإكبار والإعجاب

And he paid you your due in lamentation who had honored

Your intellect with reverence and admiration.

جمع الرئيس عليك ليلة خطبِهِ

جزع الشيوخ عليك والنواب

The leader gathered, in mourning you on the night of his ordeal,

The grief of senators and deputies for you.

لم تنسه آلامه من جرحه

آلامه في أبلغ الكتاب

The pain of his wound did not make him forget

His grief for the most eloquent of writers.

أرزاء مصر كثيرة وأشدها

ما نابها في الفتية الأنجاب

Egypt's calamities are many, and the harshest

Is the loss she suffers among her gifted young men.

هل أفقد الأحباب في ريعانهم

من بعد فقدي صحتي وشبابي

Must I lose my loved ones in their prime,

After losing my health and youth?

ويروعني في كل يوم ذاهب

لي لا يعود ومنذر بذهاب

And every day I am shaken by someone dear who departs,

Never to return to me, and by a herald of departure.

تمضي ركائبهم ولست بمالك

غير الحنين وراء كل ركاب

Their mounts pass on, and I possess

Nothing but longing in the wake of every caravan.

ولقد عجبت من القضاء وما أنا

فيه بمشتبه ولا مرتاب

And I have marveled at fate, though I am

Neither uncertain about it nor doubtful.

ليس المجاهد بالذي اقتحم الوغى

إن المجاهد فاتح الألباب

The true striver is not the one who plunges into battle;

The true striver is the one who opens minds.

في ذمة الوادي مواهبك التي

فكت عقولاً قبل فك رقاب

In the valley's keeping are your gifts, which

Freed minds before necks were freed.

وأجل من مستلحق لبلاده

مُلْكاً موفق قومه لصواب

And greater than one who adds to his country

A kingdom is one who guides his people aright.

وإذا مضى شعب إلى استقلاله

كانت طلائعه من الطلاب

And when a people advances toward its independence,

Its vanguard is drawn from students.

ومبادئ الحر الوفيّ بعهده

أبقى من الأنساب والأحساب

And the principles of a free man faithful to his pledge

Outlast lineages and ancestral honors.

وكرامة الإنسان بالإحسان لا

بثرائه وفخامة الألقاب

And a person's dignity lies in good deeds, not

In his wealth and the grandeur of titles.

ولقد تقصيت الزمان وما أنا

فيه بجوّال ولا جوّاب

And I have explored the age, though I am

Neither a wanderer in it nor a far-ranging traveler.

ووجدت فيه كل رحب مأزماً

ما دامت الأخلاق غير رحاب

And found every wide expanse within it cramped,

So long as people's moral natures lack breadth.

ورأيت في ذل العبيد جماعة

وجماعة في عزة الأسباب

And I saw one group in the abasement of slaves,

And another in the dignity afforded by resources.

وفزعت من دنيا تأهب ناسها

للعيش بالأظفار والأنياب

And I was appalled by a world whose people readied themselves

For living by claws and fangs.

وسئمت أياماً يمر مسيئها

ويفر جانيها بغير حساب

And I grew weary of days whose wrongdoer passes freely

And whose criminal escapes without a reckoning.

الحق فيها ضائع إن لم يكن

ذو الحق ربَّ صوارم وحراب

Right is lost in them, unless

Its possessor is master of keen swords and spears.

لا يأمن العدوان فيها والأذى

من ليس بالطعّان والضرّاب

No one is safe from aggression and harm in them

Who does not deal repeated thrusts and blows.

علل الأنام وطالما عالجتها

متفانياً ورجعت بالأوصاب

Humanity's ailments—long have I treated them,

With selfless devotion, and returned burdened with afflictions.

وتركت ميدان الحياة زهادة

وسكنت منصرفاً إلى المحراب

And I left life's arena in renunciation,

And grew still, turning toward the prayer niche.

أعيى الوجود الطامعين تملُّكاً

وقد احتوى ما في الوجود وطابي

The world has exhausted those greedy to possess it,

Yet my milk-skins have contained all that is in the world.

لو كنت بين الحادثات مخيراً

لاخترت راحة أمتي وعذابي

If I were granted a choice among events,

I would choose my nation's ease and my own torment.

أفدي منابع نيلها وفروعه

وأنا العليل ومن سواه شرابي

I would give my life for her Nile's sources and its branches,

Though I am ailing, and my drink comes from elsewhere.

إن يحبسوه في مجاريه فما

هم حابسوه وهو فيض سحاب

If they dam it in its channels, they cannot

Imprison it, for it is the outpouring of clouds.

أنا شيعة وحدي وحزب غير ما

في مصر من شيع ومن أحزاب

I am a faction of one, a party unlike

The factions and parties found in Egypt.

أمضي وراء عقيدتي وأجلها

من أن أداري شيعة وأحابي

I follow my conviction and hold it too high

To placate a faction and show favoritism.

غضبت على أبطال مصر جماعة

ليسوا على أعدائها بغضاب

I grew angry at a group of Egypt's heroes

Who are not angry at her enemies.

يتعجلون المستحيل عليهم

ولوَ اَنَّهم كانوا أسود الغاب

They rush to attain what is impossible for them,

Even were they lions of the forest.

في كل يوم خاسف بعشيرتي

أرضاً لمصر وقاذف بشهاب

Every day, someone makes my kinsfolk sink

Into Egypt's earth, and someone hurls a meteor.

وأشد من أهرامها إيمانهم

صبراً على الأقدار والأحقاب

And their faith is firmer than her pyramids

In enduring fate's decrees and the ages.

في أخت مصر لأجل مصر عواصف

هاجت هوى الجارات والأتراب

In Egypt's sister, for Egypt's sake, there are storms

That have stirred the passions of neighbors and peers.

هبت بوجدان الأبيِّ وبأسه

شماء تدفع قوة الغلاب

They swept forth with the spirit and courage of the unbowed,

Lofty, repelling the conqueror's might.

هل بعد ما التمس المودة ينثني

جهماً إلى سبل عليه صعاب

Does he, after seeking friendship, turn

Grim-faced toward paths that are difficult for him?

وسياسة الترغيب تتبعها ولم

يمض النهار سياسة الإرهاب

And a policy of inducement is followed, before

The day is over, by a policy of intimidation.

وبحجة قامت دعاوي الخصم أم

قامت بتمساح له وعقاب

And did the adversary's claims stand on proof, or

Did they stand on his crocodile and eagle?

لا يسلك الأسطول بادية ولو

طالت مواقفه على الأبواب

The fleet cannot cross a desert, even if

Its stays at the gates are prolonged.

يا راحلاً ترك الحياة مخلداً

آثاره للقوم والأعقاب

O departed one, who left life while immortalizing

His works for the people and posterity.

سلب القضاء القوم عمرك بينما

يسترجعون غوالي الأسلاب

Fate robbed the people of your life, while

They were reclaiming precious spoils.

وتركت روحك في الصحائف جائلاً

وثويت تحت معالم وقباب

And you left your spirit wandering through the pages,

And rested beneath monuments and domes.

لك في الحمى الذكرى التي فيها الغنى

لك عن مكافأة وحسن ثواب

In the homeland, yours is remembrance that suffices

You in place of recompense and generous reward.

ذكرى تعيد إليه شخصك ماثلاً

وكفى به رجعى وحسن مآب

A remembrance that restores you to it, visibly present;

And that suffices as a return and a fine homecoming.

كل يمد إلى العلا أسبابها

والكاتبون أحق بالأسباب

Everyone stretches toward glory the cords that lead to it,

And writers have the greatest claim to those cords.