1. All that fanciful conjecture built up
Collapses before the dawn of certainty.

2. The language of dawn bears true meaning
With eloquent tongue and clear utterance.

3. It makes all the endless night collapse -
An ignominious torment for eternity.

4. A language that gives hearts purity
And integrity in our spellbound age.

5. How my ship can survive the fray,
How I can spread the tidings of good when

6. The beasts with horns jostle and bray,
How we can go on though barriers

7. Of the envious and suspicious stand in our way.
My heart, and you, my eyes, see clear!

8. Where yearnings' memories are inscribed.
What dawn do you mean? was the question

9. That stabbed at me from my griefs and laments.
From the Exalted Night to the horror there

10. Are tales inscribed in the wretched ink.
Of sheltered girls now orphaned

11. Say not: who are they? Do not wound me!
Say not: who are they? They are tears

12. Shed by veiled, guarded modesty's eyes.
Once it was sheltered modesty

13. And now it is stigma upon the brow.
What dawn do you speak of? That was the question

14. From an old woman living in abasement,
From widowed and bereaved women who came to misfortune's door,

15. Pale women weeping their children's loss.
From little ones in Jerusalem who tasted affliction,

16. And so with burning asked me:
What dawn is it while the night is blind

17. And explosions shred calm's gown?
What dawn do you speak of? Is it a dawn

18. Of your rhyming, metered, versified dream?
Are they bits of your beautiful phrasing?

19. Are they most melodiously told?
We, O poet of optimism, have lived

20. Since time unknown in our "Zionist" night!
How can you sing of the dawn while people complain

21. Of darkness that groans with the wretched?
What dawn have you seen? Did the anguished

22. Screams of a prisoner elude you?
The tears of orphans in every land?

23. The widowed? The miscarried?
Of an infant slain in Jerusalem, yet innocent,

24. His age still months, not years.
Of Afghan homes collapsed into rubble

25. Dyed red with blood and dirt?
Of thousands of wretched refugees

26. Who wish for a handful of flour?
The language of dawn is sweet, but

27. We have not enjoyed its melody for so long!
What dawn do you speak of? Is it a dawn

28. Of our millions' victories?
What dawn do you speak of? Oh, the question

29. Pierced my grieving heart like an arrow!
That question shook me, and my sorrow

30. Nearly melted me with its heat.
But I shook off my despair when

31. Its lights called out to me.
It is the dawn! How can you forget a dawn

32. Brilliantly lit in the Clear Book?
In the guidance of prophets since Noah's time

33. And lastly the Honest and Trustworthy one!
Since he lived alone in the wilderness

34. And called to his folk: "Cover me!"
Since he revived hearts after death

35. And protected them from the Accursed's whispers.
Into fields of my fervor, follow me!

36. Send out your beautiful melody, a call
From my heart's core - do not fail me!

37. "O son of the land of guidance: I see the times complain
Of preachers of despair and demoralization.

38. I see the Samaritan making a calf
And proclaiming his rotten opinion.

39. I see the insolence of the rebels upon us -
It frightened us in our mournful Jerusalem.

40. I see one sedition chasing another
And a madness for war after war.

41. I see the great power has become
An implement of death in the dragon's hands.

42. I see illusion holding the reins -
Mocking all sober, wise minds.

43. O Abu Muti', I see the West hurling
Accusations sealed with conjecture.

44. They spilled the blood of justice when
They confronted my nation with vile hatred.

45. They wasted the "Pearl" of the little ones but protected
The blood of our Jerusalem's butcher "Sharon."

46. They painted violence in a picture they colored
With the blood of the weak and helpless.

47. They falsely ascribed it to us, yet we
Had nothing to do with its left or its right.

48. How strange! They changed the facts until
They attributed to the frail the description of the stout!

49. They dressed us in a strange garb of terrorism
And blamed us for every vile deed.

50. Can terrorism be found in checking
A tyrannical, oppressive aggressor?

51. Can it be found in supporting a right
And appealing to the teachings of religion?

52. It is they who lit the fires of war, so what can
The sword do in the hands of the helpless?

53. O Abu Muti', I see the earth is thirsty,
Seeking water from a miserly skinflint.

54. It twists in hunger at the door of a snake
While we want deliverance from Hasibun!

55. If we lent it an attentive ear
We would hear its call: Deliver me!

56. Deliver me from the unjust tyrant!
The fire of his injustice still burns me!

57. Deliver me from corruption - it has spread
And crept through souls like a plague!

58. O Abu Muti', the earth complains
And calls: O people, do not leave me!

59. We have its safety and guidance with us,
And we have the means to secure it.

60. We set out from the sanctuary of our Sacred House
To rescue people from prisons' darkness.

61. You declared it plain and clear, no need
For further clarification:

62. Our religion is our spirit - we will not compromise it
Or flatter those who spread sedition.

63. We are people of the Qur'an - we began with it
And by its light went on with certainty.

64. We gave it life and existence, so it caused
The thirsty hearts to drink the purest spring.

65. And we lived by its verses in impregnable
Citadels, secure, unshakable refuges.

66. We opened the windows of the universe until
It became a wondrous book of arts for us.

67. And we raised the call to prayer, alive, so
Every soul longed for the beautiful tune.

68. We possess the treasure - the treasure of an upright faith -
We are the richest endowed.

69. We possess the wisdom of the elders, and
The younger generation has great ambitions.

70. If we lose while the treasure is within us, then shame
And more shame on us! Do not blame me!

71. O son of the land of guidance, openly You guided us,
And You guided us with the guidance of the Trustworthy Prophet.

72. Our great oasis of a land offers
Its fruits to whoever comes with clean hands.

73. Our land is a tender breast for worshippers -
May God protect every tender breast!

74. We adopted a clear method in this land,
Impregnable, of strongholds.

75. We tightened the bonds of truth among us
And held to a strong rope.

76. We watered date palms of love, so we were glad
When they bore good fruit.

77. It is impossible for dates to become coals
And the genuine to become like the hybrid!

78. O brother of the panther, our age does not care
For the helpless who live on guesses.

79. It does not care for a nation that goes along
With cups of debased submission!

80. Our age is one of atoms and space,
Discovering the unknown and mysterious.

81. So open wide the door to ambition, for we
Have inherited the foresight of generations through religion.

82. The West painted civilization with a face
Made bloody, distorted in its formation.

83. They filled the earth with science but
Marred it with their debauchery and immorality.

84. And we painted civilization's face bright,
Extending over it the shade of branches.

85. Since the Blessed Valley overflowed with tidings
And the Brilliance of "Meads" was fragrant.

86. If we are weak in our age it is because
We have turned too much to the stubborn West.

87. O son of the land of guidance, the one who tended
To "He of the Fish" will tend to our path.

88. The matter is in God's hands - He accomplishes
What His knowledge has folded in kaf and nun.

89. The invitation to disbelief will end, and
The invitation to truth will remain the invitation to triumph.