1. Your rule is everlasting, departing and abiding,
Your kingdom ancient and recent, lasting and subsiding.

2. Turn to both thrones, both armies and both lands,
With the grace of time and fortune smiling and chiding.

3. Experiences have proven, events have shown,
That you will attain both goals, with wisdom guiding.

4. When you smiled announcing salvation's news,
Its mystery concealed, its secret confiding,

5. The sultan's greeting was proof that consequences
Bring no joy to adversaries colliding.

6. Your palace rises over the Bosphorus, alluring,
Repelling the schemes of corrupters backsliding.

7. You embodied sonship, brotherhood, fatherhood,
Bonds of marriage and clan, all providing.

8. You counseled Serbs with good advice forbidding
Aid to tyrants defeated, forces dividing.

9. We cast off the defiant Balkan mutineer
If he offends the faithful, sanctities deriding.

10. You gratified the Caliph; oft he called your ancestors,
Romans requesting aid, forces colliding.

11. The East recalls their deeds in the Hijaz; the West, their blows
Against the Romans, their cities dividing.

12. I agonize for Egypt’s independence, its people,
With yearning like one longing for the departed.

13. Why do I see its banners furled, its soldiers disarmed,
Its fortresses but ruins, traces abiding?

14. For faith and land we fought the foe until we forfeited
Both faith and land, and set them re-colliding.

15. I gained no blossom if enslaved; took no refreshment
If winds blew not free, but stifled, confiding.

16. The Nile, if not flowing in your name alone,
Flows poisoned through the valley, life dividing.

17. Morocco in the clutch of usurpers, its structures razed,
Playthings, though ruins pain them, grief deriding.

18. Amusement slaughters earnestness; they perish for want,
Hungering, provisions scarce, sustenance hiding.

19. But for wounds in our souls that rouse us, we would not dread
Sedation and sleep, vigilance chiding.

20. I censured them one day; they said, an ungrateful dissident
Who condemns reform and justice, upgrading.

21. I refuted their claim; they said, a schemer
Misleading his people, their repute deriding.

22. They told a different tale of you, but roused no conflict,
Healed no suffering, no anguish subdividing.

23. They said, “He is innocent of defending his nation,
Seeks no independence,” pretenses deriding.

24. They banned hope, deemed it forbidden – as if
Banning or forbidding were in their deciding!

25. How they embarrassed you, to enrage you! But saw no fury,
No flames erupting, fiery coals colliding.

26. When with discord they filled the land – with lies,
Delusions, lightning, clouds, and wrath abiding,

27. You were the wellspring of your Egypt’s Nile,
Granter of bliss and bounty, fears overriding.

28. Would you change her skies for others’? Or fashion
A new creation, the old fabric dividing?

29. Master, your glories, when darkness falls, are Egypt’s stars,
Nobles and heroes, pure hearts residing.

30. No more a party of yours, but politics itself
Became the gain to share, the spoils dividing.

31. One leans gently, one coerces; some hope, while others
Despair, their sorrows overflowing, confiding.

32. Who yields is the best proof against those who imagined
Tyranny and wrongdoing, honor deriding.

33. Those who provoked – they gained no land, but wearied
Of vileness, yearning for dignity, new guiding.

34. Scarce a year of ordeals before they shamed
The enthroned one’s breast; he abdicated, hiding.

35. The chosen successor came, though recently unwelcome,
A generous guest in our land so dividing.

36. Charged to treat Egypt gently, gracefully,
As if none but you were her guide, providing.

37. If you wished, she would be a paradise for her people;
If you wished, for tyrants, an inferno, chiding.

38. Master, the archer has taken aim, the bowman drawn taut;
The oppressor fears the oppressed, revenge colliding.

39. They have eaten up your hoped-for pardon, after fate
Decreed its decree, its judgment overriding.

40. Heavy on the broken prisoner were his chains,
So be kind to the broken, mercy guiding.

41. If freedom relieves the captive’s pain, we have not forgotten
Bones wasting in dust, remembrance chiding.

42. We do not ask you ready an army, mountainous,
A formidable navy, forces colliding.

43. What we hope for is our guidance, leadership,
Advice, instruction, lessons overriding.

44. That is the greatest opening of conquest, exceeding
All conquests, even great Abraham's guiding.

45. Master, such is my passionate zeal, my peace;
I make no claim to blamelessness, perfect confiding.

46. They said “You are an extremist.” I said “No blame
To one who weeps his rights usurped, justice deriding.”

47. I complain of oppressors among my foes, as I would
Complain of loved ones turned hostile, affections dividing.

48. By God, were it not said I had despaired,
And valiant struggle ceased, no bravery guiding,

49. I would keep the silence of one drowned in tears,
Leave to the ruins their owls, night-birds presiding.

50. So rouse yourself the length and breadth of the land,
Free of wing, shaking it with song, foes chiding.