أعياد عزك للدنيا مجاليها

وللأحاديث عاليها وغاليها

The festivals of your glory show the world their splendors,

and lend their loftiest, most precious themes to tales.

وللبرية منها ما تسر به

وللرعية ما يرضى أمانيها

Mankind finds in them what gives it joy,

and the subjects find what fulfills their hopes.

وللسعود غدوّ في صبائحها

وللميامن مسرى في لياليها

Good fortune sets forth in their mornings,

and blessings journey through their nights.

وللمالك حظ في مفاخرها

وللملوك نصيب من معانيها

The sovereign has a share in their glories,

and kings partake of their significance.

لعز غليوم فيها من يمثله

وذات إدورد فيها من يحاكيها

Wilhelm's glory has its representative among them,

and Edward has someone there to mirror his person.

ما للممالك لا يأتي أكابرها

لصاحب النيل أو يسعى أهاليها

Why should the kingdoms' grandees not come

to the lord of the Nile, or their peoples not hasten to him?

أليس من جمَّل الدنيا أبوته

وقصّرت عن معاليهم مواليها

Is he not the one whose forefathers adorned the world,

while its rulers fell short of their lofty attainments?

العصر يعلم والأحياء ما بلغت

بعصر أيام إسماعيل تنويها

The age and the living know how high

the days of Ismail raised an era in renown.

ضافته بلقيس حين الدهر خادمها

في ملكها والليالى من جواريها

Bilqis visited him when time was her servant

in her kingdom, and the nights were among her handmaids.

وجاءه المالكون الصِّيد في سفن

ألقت على الساحة الكبرى مراسيها

The proud sovereigns came to him in ships

that cast their anchors upon the great expanse,

تُقل كل كبير الملك مقتدر

تعزّ آيته الدنيا وتعليها

bearing every powerful lord of a vast dominion,

whose emblem the world honors and holds high.

منىً كبار وآمال محببة

خابت ولم يلق غير اللوم راجيا

Great aspirations and cherished hopes

came to nothing; for hoping, he received nothing but blame.

والناس من تقعد الدنيا به قعدوا

سجية المرء في الدنيا يجاريها

When the world brings a man down, people hold back;

it is man's nature in this world to follow its course.

بنيت فوق عريض اليم قنطرة

ما كان فرعون ذو الأوتاد يبنيها

You built a bridge above the broad waters

that Pharaoh, lord of the stakes, could not have built.

شماء قاهرة فوق المياه فلا

تجرى وتذهب إلا ما توليها

Lofty and commanding above the waters, which cannot

flow or pass except as you allow them.

طلعت والشمس في ابهى مواكبها

وموكب الملك ذو الأنوار يَزريها

You appeared, the sun in its most splendid procession,

and the king's light-filled procession outshone it.

كما تطلّع يوما في ركائبه

رمسيس تدفعه الأيدي وتزجيها

As once, amid his mounts, there appeared

Ramses, with hands propelling him and urging them onward.

أجل ركبا من الأقمار كافلة

تبدو النجوم حواليها تساريها

More splendid in cavalcade than watchful moons,

with stars appearing around them, journeying beside them by night.

لا تنثنى عن محياك القلوب هوى

إن عارض الذهب الأبصار يثنيها

Hearts, in love, never turn away from your face,

though gold's glitter may turn the eyes aside.

وقفت والنيل خلف السد منتظر

إشارة من بنان الخير يمضيها

You stood, the Nile waiting behind the dam

for a signal from the fingers of goodness to carry out.

فأعملت يدك المفتاح فانفجرت

في مصر عشر عيون من اياديها

Then your hand worked the key, and there burst forth

ten springs in Egypt, from that hand's bounty.

لما جريت لغايات الندى وجرى

عجبت كيف حوى البحرين واديها

When you raced toward generosity's utmost goals, and it raced too,

I marveled how her valley held the two seas.

تالله ما جرت الأرزاق يومئذ

إلا وكنت بإذن الله مجريها

By God, no sustenance flowed that day

but you, by God's leave, were the one who set it flowing.

مفاخر لك يختال الزمان بها

قام الخطيب وزير الرىّ يطريها

Yours are glories in which time struts proudly;

the orator, the minister of irrigation, rose to praise them.

من لأبن جعفر إن يحصى عليك ثنا

وللبلاغة في علياك ما فيها

Who can aid Ibn Ja'far, should he recount your praise,

when eloquence finds such scope in your exalted rank?

لو دام يهدى لك الأشعار حافلة

ما ضِقت جاها ولا ضاقت قوافيها

Even if he kept offering you richly laden poems,

your stature would never prove too small, nor their rhymes run short.

يا نيل مصر وفي الأيام موعظة

ماذا لقيت من الدنيا واهليها

O Nile of Egypt—in the passing days lies a lesson—

what have you suffered from the world and its people!

ليت البرية ما داستك أرجلها

بعد المشيب ولا غلتك أيديها

Would that mankind's feet had never trampled you

after you had grown gray, nor its hands shackled you!

قد ثقلوك بنيرٍ من جلامد لا

تعده الأرض إلا من رواسيها

They have weighed you down with a yoke of boulders that

the earth counts only among its anchoring mountains.

وحملوك صخورا فوق ما حملت

منها أثافي دهور عز خاليها

And burdened you with more stone than was borne

by the hearthstones of ages glorious in their past.

أمسيت في مصر موثوقا إلى اجل

وكنت وحدك حرّا في نواحيها

You have become bound in Egypt until an appointed term,

though you alone were free throughout her reaches.

قدّت لك الصخر اغلالا ومن عجب

الشر تجزيك حين الخير تجزيها

She hewed the rock into fetters for you; how strange—

she repays you with evil while you repay her with good.

ضنا بمائك أن يسقى الصعيد به

ورب حرص على الأشياء يؤذيها

Out of care for your water, to water Upper Egypt with it—

and many a concern for things does them harm.

ومركَب من بخار قد جرى وجرت

من تحته الأرض تطويه ويطويها

A conveyance of steam sped on, while the earth sped

beneath it, folding it as it folded her.

كأن اشباحه والليل ياخذها

سرائر الأرض تبديها وتخفيها

As though its shapes, while night engulfed them,

were the earth's secrets, which she reveals and hides.

كأنها وبياض الصبح نم بها

رسل النهار إلى الدنيا تهنيها

As though they—dawn's whiteness having betrayed them—

were the day's messengers to the world, bringing her glad greetings.

تمر أعجلَ في شرخ الشباب بنا

على مناظر كالفردوس ضاحيها

You bear us on more swiftly, in youth's first bloom,

past landscapes whose sunlit expanses are like Paradise,

على الطبيعة تلهو في ملاعبها

من الوجود وتزهى في مغانيها

past Nature playing in her playgrounds

within creation, and glorying in her haunts,

كغادة لمعاني الحسن جامعة

تقاسم الحسن عاريها وكاسيها

like a maiden gathering every quality of beauty,

whose bare and clothed parts share beauty between them.

ولى الصبا ومضى جِد الدهور به

ولا تزال لعوبا في تصابيها

Youth is gone, borne away by the sternness of the ages,

yet she remains playful in her youthful coquetry.

مثل الملاحة في الدنيا مداولة

تُفنى الحسان ولا حسناء تفنيها

Like loveliness, passed around throughout the world,

she wears out beauties, but no beauty wears her out.

يا ابن البخار تمهل في الصعيد بنا

تر البسيطة في مشهور ماضيها

O son of steam, slow down with us in Upper Egypt;

you will see the earth in her renowned past.

وقِف نشاهد طلول الأقدمين به

تحير الدهر فيها كيف يبليها

And stop; let us behold there the ruins of the ancients.

Time is baffled by them: how can it wear them away?

هياكل كالجبال الشم سافلها

وفوق هام النجوم الزهر عاليها

Temples whose lower reaches are like towering mountains,

and whose heights rise above the heads of the shining stars.

إذا أتتها الليالي من قواعدها

تنالها بالبلى قامت اثافيها

When the nights assail them at their foundations,

seeking to wear them down, their supporting stones stand firm.

يفنى الزمان ولا تبلى زخارفها

ولا يحول من الألوان زاهيها

Time passes away, yet their adornments do not decay,

nor do their brilliant colors fade.

إذا وقفت بأبواب الملوك ضحى

أيقنت أن قد بنى للخلد بانيها

When you stand at the kings' gates in the forenoon,

you know for certain their builder built for eternity.

رأيت فرعون موسى عند حفرته

لا يطلب اليوم من دنياه تأليها

You see the Pharaoh of Moses beside his grave,

no longer seeking deification from his world,

بين الحياة وبين الموت من جزع

يخشى القيامة فيها أن يلاقيها

between life and death, in such terror

that he fears to meet the Resurrection there.

عجائب الطب لا لقمان يعرفها

في الغابرين ولا بستور يدريها

Marvels of medicine, known neither to Luqman

among the ancients, nor to Pasteur.

يا أمة بلغت في المجد غايته

وقصر الناس فيه عن مساعيها

O nation that reached glory's utmost height,

while other peoples fell short of her endeavors,

قوموا الغداة انظروا هذى مآثركم

هل في مآثرهم شئ يضاهيها

rise this morning; behold these, your achievements:

is there anything in theirs to rival them?