الله أعطى عهد مصر محمدا

والله إن أعطى أعز وأيدا

God has given Egypt Muhammad as its heir.

And when God gives, He grants honor and support.

شرف على شرف ومنّة منعم

ما كان يسديها إلى عبد سدى

Honor upon honor, and a benefactor's favor,

Which He would not bestow upon a servant in vain.

وإذا أظل الله طفلا مرضعا

جعل الأسرة مهده والمرقدا

And when God shelters a suckling infant,

He makes thrones his cradle and resting place.

صبح البنين إذا غدوا فيها وهم

فالأمّهات وما يلدن له فدا

He is the sons' dawn when they rise in them; and they,

And mothers and all they bear, are his ransom.

نرجو به وبهم لمصرٍ بَعثة

ولرب عصر في المهود تجددا

Through him and them, we hope for Egypt's revival;

And many an age has been renewed in cradles.

ونعدّ تعذر أننُهَيِّئ خيرهم

فمن الأبوّة أن نحب ونرشدا

And we reckon how hard it is to provide for their welfare;

For fatherhood means that we love and guide.

للمرء في الدنيا مقاصد جمة

جُمعت فكان النسل منها المقصدا

A man has many aims in this world;

They were gathered, and offspring became the goal among them.

فإذا وفدت على الوجود فكن أباً

أو كن خيالا في الوجود مشرَّدا

So when you enter life, be a father,

Or be a phantom, cast adrift in life.

فرحت قلوب الأمهات وفتحت

لحفيدة الأمراء جدتهم غدا

Mothers' hearts rejoiced and opened

To the princes' granddaughter, their grandmother tomorrow,

للأصل طهرا والفروع كريمة

والبر حقا والحنان مؤكدا

For purity in the root and nobility in the branches,

And genuine kindness and unfailing tenderness.

يا ربة التاجين عن آبائها

عن ماجدٍ عال عن ابنٍ أمجدا

O lady of the two crowns inherited from your forefathers,

From a noble, lofty lord, from a still nobler son:

يتألقان الدهر هذا بالعلى

حالٍ وهذا بالفضيلة والهدى

Both shine through time: the one, with eminence,

Is adorned; the other, with virtue and guidance.

جددتِ صفو الملك بالنعم التي

صحبت ظهور الجود ميلاد الندى

You renewed the serenity of kingship with the blessings that

Attended bounty's advent, munificence's birth,

وبليلتين أضاءتا كلتاهما

كانت لنا أفقا وعزك فرقدا

And with two nights that both shone:

They were a horizon for us, and your glory its Farqad.

ما زال قصر الملك يشرق فيهما

حتى حسبنا الصبح حالا سرمدا

The royal palace kept shining through them,

Until we thought dawn a state everlasting.

تتقابل الأعلام في شرفاته

وتخر للشرف المؤثَّل سجّدا

Flags face one another upon its balconies,

And fall prostrate before long-established honor.

والعرش في عيد بصاحب عهده

والتاج خلف العرش يحيى المولدا

The throne celebrates its heir,

And the crown behind the throne hails the birth.

وترى البلاد به بناء وجودها

وعمادها ومنارها المتوقدا

The country sees in him the edifice of its existence,

And its pillar, and its blazing beacon.

قالوا السماك فقلت خطرة شاعر

من للسماك بأن يُقلّ السؤددا

They said, 'al-Simak'; I said, 'A poet's fancy!'

Who can make al-Simak bear such lordly grandeur?

قالوا الثريا قلت قد قيست بها

شرفاته فاختار ثم تقلدا

They said, 'The Pleiades'; I said, 'Against them were measured

Its balconies; so it chose them, then wore them as a necklace.'

من للكواكب أن تكون كمثله

حرما برفرفك الأمِين ومسجدا

Who can make the stars like it,

A sanctuary beneath your secure canopy, and a mosque?

أو من لها أن تستعد وأن تُرى

عقدا بأفراح الأمير منضدا

Or who can make them ready and have them appear

As a necklace strung for the prince's celebrations?

أم هل هي الدنيا التي قد أمَّها

شغلت كما شغل الأحبة والعدى

Or are they the world to which he has come,

Preoccupied, as loved ones and foes have been preoccupied?

الشمس كان لها حفيد في الورى

وحفيد هذا العز أشرف محتدا

The sun had a grandson among humankind,

And this glory's grandson is of nobler stock.

كانت وعود الدهر بين شفاهه

فافتر عنه فاقتبلتِ الموعدا

Time's promises lay between his lips;

Then he parted them to reveal him, and you welcomed the promise.

ومشى إليكِ يتوب عن هفواته

عبدا فردّيه بعفوك سيدا

And he walked to you, repenting of his lapses,

A slave—so with your pardon, send him back a master.