غضبتم ورهيب منكم الغضب — أحمد الكاشف

غضبتمُ ورهيبٌ منكمُ الغضبُ

للحق ينزعه باغ ويستلبُ

You have grown angry, and fearsome is your anger,

over a right an aggressor wrests away and steals.

هل السياسة فن من قواعده

عند العتاة الدهاة الختل والكذب

Is politics an art whose principles,

among cunning tyrants, are deceit and lies?

دعوهمُ وسجاياهم ومؤتمراً

للظلم ما قرأوا فيه وما كتبوا

Leave them, their ways, and their conference:

all they have read and written there serves oppression.

ورابطوا في المضيق الصعب وانتظروا

فيه وفودهم تترى وتنتدب

And hold your posts in the difficult strait, and await

their delegations there, arriving in succession and coming forward.

وراءكم جيرة زالت خصومتهم

دأبتمُ في رضاهم مثل ما دأبوا

Behind you are neighbors whose hostility has ceased;

you strove for their goodwill, just as they strove for yours.

وهكذا بينكم يقضي الزمان بما

لم تقضه بينكم قربى ولا نسب

And thus time decrees between you what

neither kinship nor lineage decreed between you.

يا قادة الشرق حسب الشرق تكرمة

وحسبكم هذه الألقاب والرتب

O leaders of the East, the East has honor enough,

and these titles and ranks are enough for you.

إن الألى هربوا من بطشكم رجعوا

يطاولونكمُ من بعد ما نكبوا

Indeed, those who fled your onslaught have returned,

to rival you after they were laid low,

مستنجدين بمن أغراهمُ عبثاً

والذنب ما حملوا منه وما ركبوا

seeking help from the one who incited them in vain.

And theirs is the guilt they bore and the sins they committed.

عودوا إلى البأس بعد اللين فهو لكم

قد يفعل البأس ما لا تفعل الخطب

Return to might after gentleness, for it is yours;

might may accomplish what speeches cannot.

لاحق للشرق إلا في معاقله

والحق منقلبٌ في الغرب مغترب

The East has no right except within its strongholds;

and right, overturned in the West, is a stranger there.

هل يملك الحكم في لوزان خصمكمُ

ودونه في سوى لوزان مضطرب

Does your adversary command the verdict in Lausanne,

while turmoil confronts him outside Lausanne?

ما كان كرزون بالموفي لأمته

ودون ما يبتغيه الهول والنوب

Curzon did not deliver for his nation,

with terror and calamities barring what he seeks.

ما حجة الخصم والأيام تخذله

على كرام الضحايا بعد ما غلبوا

What case has the adversary, when the days forsake him,

against the noble victims, after they have prevailed?

إن حاربوكم جميعاً حول موصلكم

تنازعوا دونها باغين واحتربوا

If they all wage war on you around your Mosul,

they will quarrel before it as aggressors and fight one another.

مازيتها الفائض الموفور غايتكم

لكنها الأهل والجيران والصحب

Its plentiful, overflowing oil is not your aim;

rather, your aim is kinfolk, neighbors, and friends.

لم تألفوا أن ناسا في مساومة

من بين ما يأخذ الباغي وما يهب

You have never been accustomed to people being bargained over,

as part of what the aggressor takes and what he gives.

هل يرغب الكرد في استقلالهم زمناً

من بعدما ابتلت استقلالها العرب

Would the Kurds desire independence for a time,

after the Arabs have put their independence to the test?

ليس النبيُّ بجدٍّ للألى انقلبوا

إلى المغير على مثواه وانتسبوا

The Prophet is no ancestor of those who turned

to the raider of his resting place and claimed kinship.

وهم سبيل إلى البيت الحرام له

وهم إلى المسجد الأقصى له سبب

And they are his path to the Sacred House,

and his means of reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque.

وخارجٍ عبد الدنيا كما عبدت

تلك التماثيل والأصنام والنصب

And many a rebel worshipped the world, as were worshipped

those statues, idols, and sacred stones.

في كل واد له عرشٌ بنته يدٌ

رضوانُها غضبٌ إحسانها تعب

In every valley he has a throne, built by a hand

whose favor is wrath, whose kindness is hardship.

يكاد بالجالس المرتاب يقذفه

تنكُّر القوم والتعريض والشغب

It is nearly hurled away with its uneasy occupant,

by the people's hostility, veiled taunts, and tumult.

هل يخلع الطاعة العظمى ليملكه

من ذلك السلب الديباج والذهب

Does he cast off the highest obedience, only to be owned

by brocade and gold from that plunder,

ويترك الملأ الأعلى إلى ملأ

كالصلِّ ينساب أو كالذئب ينسرب

and abandon the heavenly assembly for a company

that slithers like a viper or slinks away like a wolf?

عندي لأنقرة نجوى الضمير ولي

في مكةَ الشبهات اليوم والريب

For Ankara I have my conscience's whispered counsel, and I have

suspicions and doubts today concerning Mecca.

تَهْوِي القلوب إلى البيت الحرام ولا

تَهْوَى قبيلاً على حراسه وثبوا

Hearts incline toward the Sacred House, but do not

love a tribe that pounced upon its guardians.

لم يشك جدباً ولا فقراً فتعوزه

من غير خالقه الأنواء والسحب

It complained of neither drought nor poverty, that it should need

rain-bearing stars and clouds from anyone but its Creator.

بدت سرائرُ خوّانين واشتهرت

وإن تنكَّر خوّانون واحتجبوا

The secrets of traitors have come to light and become known,

even if traitors disguise themselves and hide.

الطفل في المهد أزكى في عشيرته

من بالغ شقيت أمٌّ به وأب

The child in the cradle is purer among his clan

than an adult whose mother and father have suffered through him.

يا جيرة الترك والماضي لكم عظة

جافيتموهم وأغضوا بعد ما عتبوا

O neighbors of the Turks—the past is a lesson for you—

you shunned them, and they overlooked it after reproaching you.

فهم وأنتم سواء في معاملة

إن تبعدوا بعدوا أو تقربوا قربوا

They and you are alike in your dealings:

if you keep away, they keep away; or if you draw near, they draw near.

ولو خلت لكمُ أوطانكم لرضوا

لكنها لغزاة حولها ضربوا

And had your homelands been yours alone, they would have been content;

but they belong to invaders who encamped around them.

هل انشققتم أم استقللتمُ وإلى

حرية أم إلى رقٍّ بكم ذهبوا

Did you secede, or gain independence—and to

freedom or to bondage did they lead you?

فلو رجعتم إلى الحسنى لكان لكم

إلى صحابتكم رجعَى ومنقلب

Had you returned to goodwill, you would have had

a return to your companions, and a homecoming.

مهما طلبتم من النعمى لأنفسكم

فلن تزيدوا غداً عما لكم طلبوا

Whatever well-being you seek for yourselves,

tomorrow you will not surpass what they sought for you.

ودعوة لمعيد الشرق سيرته

ماجت دمشق بها واستأنست حلب

And a call for the restorer of the East's former course—

Damascus surged with it, and Aleppo took comfort.

سارت كأن أساطيلاً تشيعها

مثل الجبال عليها الجحفل اللجب

It traveled as though fleets escorted it,

like mountains, with the clamorous host aboard.

تجاوز الهند مرماها ورددها

خلف البحار دويُّ الرعد يصطخب

Its reach passed beyond India, and it was echoed

beyond the seas by the clamorous roar of thunder.

إني لأشفق من يوم على دولٍ

يقضي الحديد عليها فيه واللهب

I truly fear for nations a day

when iron and flame will make an end of them.

فلا يروَّع أقوام بما خسروا

ولا يمتع أقوام بما كسبوا

Then no peoples will be terrified by what they have lost,

nor will any peoples enjoy what they have gained.

ويطلب المهل والزقوم طاغية

أمضَّهُ ظمأٌ أو عضَّه سغب

And a tyrant will seek molten metal and zaqqum,

tormented by thirst or bitten by hunger.

ممالك الشرق والإسلام تذكرة

فالشرق أسوان والإسلام ينتحب

Kingdoms of the East and Islam, a reminder:

for the East is sorrowful, and Islam sobs.

أين الأمانة والميثاق بينكمُ

والبيت منتهب والقدس مغتصب

Where are fidelity and the covenant among you,

while the House is plundered and Jerusalem is seized?

مجد الرجال على مقدار ما بذلوا

من الدم الحر لا الدمع الذي سكبوا

Men's glory is measured by how much they have given

of free men's blood, not by the tears they shed.

ذوودا عن الوطن الغالي وعن شرف

بذل النفوس له بعض الذي يجب

Defend the precious homeland, and honor

for which sacrificing lives is only part of what is due.

ومن أراد حياة العز طيبة

فالأرض تحمله حراً أو الشهب

And whoever desires a sweet life of honor,

then the earth will bear him free, or the shooting stars will.

يا وافدَ الشرق جوَّاباً بلا سندٍ

في الغرب ينتظر العقبى ويرتقب

O envoy of the East, roaming without support,

awaiting the outcome in the West and keeping watch:

مصير كل قبيل بعد جولته

ما خطه في فروقَ الفتيةُ النجب

the fate of every people, after its campaign,

is what the noble youths inscribed in Faruq.

فصل الخطاب لهم بعد القضاء غدا

في سائر الأمر جد القوم أو لعبوا

After judgment, the final say became theirs,

in all affairs, whether the people were earnest or jested.

أين السلام وأين العاملون له

وأنه أمل الأبرار والأرب

Where is peace, and where are those who work for it,

though it is the righteous people's hope and desire?

كلٌّ يمد وراء الغيب غايته

وليس يعلم ما يأتي به رجب

Each extends his aim beyond the unseen,

and does not know what Rajab will bring.