1. In Al Gezira Club stop an hour
And see, by your Lord, what it contains

2. You will see a garden of spring’s gardens
Appearing with eternity on a level plain

3. Nature’s beauty on its horizon
Was manifest on its throne and plateaued

4. So say to the sorrowful and say to the sick
And say to the longing there is the remedy

5. And say to the writer seize its open space
When eloquence twists around you

6. And say to the student bent over his lesson
When the lesson has drained his strength

7. Inhale its zephyr to renew your strength
For Al Gezira land can’t be surpassed

8. In it is a cure for the sick at heart
And a noble playmate for the lovesick

9. In it and in its Nile is solace
For every stranger fate has blown

10. In it is food for people of intellect
When the head is tired and power fades

11. O Lord of a day hot and blazing
It tells of hell and what hell portrays

12. The wind in it fans the faces
The sun in it kindles the flame’s blaze

13. I went to Al Gezira seeking salvation
While my body roasted in the scorching blaze

14. So I found its club flourishing
And found there a blissful abode

15. It lodged me in a goodly lodging
And quenched my heart until fully slaked

16. The shadows of those trees dampened
The blaze of noon and heat of summer’s haze

17. The gentle breeze took off from the north
So it blew to it thronging and massed in its glades

18. It revived the memory of my youth for me
And what of it and it was enfolded

19. And my heart returned to that ardour
Though after grey hair it had slowed and fazed

20. Why don’t my people take
A road to those gardens traveling their ways

21. Why don’t my people alight
Except for my misfortune and ill fate

22. You see them bent over their cards
Each hastening to what he craves

23. If they were just to their bodies they would discover
Through exercise and wholesome air its aid

24. O club that gathers friends’ company
And the generous amusement and wards off decay

25. Your nights have unitary eased by clarity
So delegations of intimates flock your way

26. How many a night where converse was sweet in you
With cups passed round and draughts quaffed till day

27. From amusing to entrancing
To hilarious to relax

28. Seemly is the garb propriety wears
For your amusement in every taste finds its way

29. To it gravitate dignified pilgrims
And stroll elegant supple belles its way

30. So say to him who spent the night under strains
At war with himself and anguished in every way

31. Are those places not to be visited
Are those sights not to be seen

32. Under heaven and the moon of the sky
And amid gardens and thickets their display

33. Sitting grows tedious and converse comes to an end
For this is bliss, if not there’s no way

34. I asked the intimates who enjoy life
Does it not entrance you, and they said: Yea!

35. A place, by your life, in its environs
Has settled no sorrowful soul, nay!

36. You are not in Egypt if you don’t dash
To it to witness those charms on display

37. It has a playground in which is what
The sports-lover desires, however dear he pay

38. Each team has a game there
Fitting for its years, nothing held away

39. A game which, were we to look on it
With the eye of prohibition, is earnest play

40. It has appeal abroad, many
Have been its dilettantes night and day

41. And in Hellas’ land I saw it
What beauty tilted its way

42. And saw its season crammed
With the environs’ every desire and want at bay

43. And thronged with enthusiasts
Loftier than a king’s throne its display

44. It increased the charm of its games
A spacious place made ready for their sway

45. Wrestling and distant running
And jumping nearly to touch the starry array

46. And I saw their runners race
Thirty miles without toil or decay

47. The boxers stood their ground
Distracting from the butting of wild beasts at bay

48. With the subtlest hint the bout began
Alas, whoever of them has gone astray!

49. Were I to enumerate those maneuvers
My poem would be cramped, it couldn’t convey

50. Though on our horizon is a renaissance
That will reach, despite stagnation, its farthest way

51. If it hasn’t attained its peak
Everything is so when it starts its day

52. The sports club is most deserving
To be its beacon guiding the way

53. The towering works of Hussein
Are shaded by the gentle shadow’s spray

54. A king who prospered it by his favor
And excellent care and effort each day

55. So in his reign the glorious will find
For with him prosperity began its sway