1. Can poetic elegance convey your meanings,
Though the poem's heart is most spacious for praise?

2. The Merciful established an empire on earth for Uthman
That neither relents nor branches out.

3. He built it, so the nomads thought it dwellings
For the full moons to inhabit and the auspicious stars.

4. After him men arose in the Caliphate
Who added to that structure and embellished it.

5. They restored Islam's time of youth,
Giving it esteem to hope for and to fear.

6. Lions over the Bosphorus guarding their den
And tending the slumber of East and observant West.

7. They have leaps, beneath the shade of its crescent,
Like the flight of an arrow or a shooting star's swoop.

8. If adversity touches them even slightly
They are like lions prodded—enraged.

9. When that crescent shakes them over some misfortune,
You see God's destiny marching and riding.

10. When accounts are settled on a day of reckoning,
Uthman is the best opener for them.

11. If, confused by sons and war, a father goes astray,
The most lost of men is he who is most stubborn.

12. Inscribed on the pages of time in glory.
There is he who launched the ships across dry land

13. And for him the vessel and the camel sailed the land and sea.
On his lofty gate gleamed lines

14. Attributed to the Pens of Majesty.
What but a refuge were they who took shelter

15. In the embrace of God's servant when foes threatened?
He tells them, “My scabbard guards my honor;

16. My sword exacts revenge.”
If fortune favors, I am its heaven;

17. If misfortune comes, stand fast and try me!
Thus they dwelled secure in their abodes

18. While adversaries in the West suffered woes.
How often did the latter beg amnesty—and it was granted!

19. In the East they found sanctuary and pasture.
They were the tribe's safety, while the East shone radiant,

20. And their distinction made the East life's evening star.
They say, “This place breeds narrow-mindedness!”

21. But what place is without such narrowness?
O East! If the West should bend or harden,

22. In it is the pliant temper of bright steel.
Fear its rage in the head but also its weakness in drink,

23. As the head burns and the cup makes it reel!
O West! Time floats men as boats

24. And sweeps them in the current of destiny to founder.
I see you are the ambitious man's destination,

25. As though each of your thrones has a high ladder.