1. I hear the rumble of war resounding
Through land and sea, horizons and clouds

2. Each kingdom an enemy of another
With all its steel and flames amassed

3. Where are your weapons, O Egypt’s clansmen
As you fall prey to raids and invasions?

4. Have you dispensed with your battalions
Replacing them with hollow words and clamor?

5. You will beg for peace as before, though you
Are not a people wont to foes or allies

6. Do you slumber until you are resurrected
To see your bonds amid captives’ cries?

7. Prolonged discord and division amongst you
Over titles, ranks, positions and jobs

8. Each lad now hurls away his principles
Like a peddler does amid supply and demand

9. What once drew wrath is now a gracious favor
Contradictions and confusion in your disputes

10. So I can’t tell right from play
If only the planner was right, the doer astray

11. You complain of monetary woes and griefs
While the nation suffers a moral calamity

12. He who exceeds his debts with his belongings
Will find paper payments as hard as gold

13. Unchain yourselves, seek deliverance
Then follow the example of Turks and Arabs

14. For your enemy has revealed his hidden aims
And stepped from marsh to marsh through you

15. Without adding anything new to his policy
Except for means, standards, and causes

16. Having grown used to attaining his goals
Undeterred by suspicions and doubts

17. I warned you, but you refused to heed
And what I feared came to pass in the end

18. I dread the killing of the refugee among you
In case he takes revenge and turns on me

19. May the memory of the martyred stranger
Remind, with his blood, those who forgot my poetry