1. Where is the proof that I explain what is in me
For you, O martyr of knowledge and literature

2. I was surprised when I read your obituary while occupied
With every unpleasantness and tribulation

3. And it stirred my frail nerves after they
Had calmed, and my nerves' illness was enough

4. And I remembered you fondly after your obituary
Like a lover remembering the best of beloveds

5. And I sent you whispers but you didn't answer
And the obituarist responded to my letter

6. Your apologies carried to me after
My innermost thoughts had gone to you resentfully

7. And he did you justice by eulogizing you, one who was loyal
To your right, with magnificence and admiration

8. The president gathered on the night of his speech
The elders' anguish over you and the deputies'

9. His pains did not make him forget yours from his wound
Pains in the most eloquent scripture

10. Many privations of Egypt, the greatest being
What befell the finest young men

11. Do I lose loved ones in their prime
After losing my health and youth?

12. And every passing day frightens me
One that will not return, boding departure

13. Their ships sail and I own naught
Except yearning behind every ship

14. And I wondered at fate and my lack of
Confusion or doubt in it

15. The warrior is not one who plunged into the fray
But the warrior is the opener of minds

16. In the charge of the valley were your talents that
Freed minds before freeing necks

17. And higher than one deserving of his country
A destined ruler guiding his people aright

18. And if a people marched to independence
Its vanguards were from the students

19. And the loyal free man's principles to his pledge
Are lasting, unlike lineages and accounts

20. And human dignity is through benevolence, not
Riches or prestigious titles

21. And I examined time and am not
Roaming or answering in it

22. And found every expanse constrained
As long as morals are not spacious

23. And I saw a group in the slaves' humiliation
And a group in the glory of causes

24. And I recoiled from a world whose people
Live through claws and fangs

25. And I grew weary of days whose sins pass
While their perpetrators escape unpunished

26. Truth is lost in them if its owner is not
A lord of keen swords and battle

27. Aggression and harm are not safe therein
From one who is no transgressor or smiter

28. I tirelessly cured the people's afflictions
Only to return injured

29. And I left the field of life ascetically
Living secluded, inclined to prayer

30. The greed of ownership exhausted existence
That contained what is, to my pleasure

31. If I could choose amongst events
I would choose the comfort of my nation and my agony

32. I would sacrifice the sources of its Nile and its tributaries
While I am infirm and nothing else takes my drought

33. If they dam it in its channels, they don't
Dam it, for it is a cloud's abundance

34. I have but one faction and party, not what
Factions and parties exist in Egypt

35. I follow my belief always
More seemly than courting factions and parties

36. I grew angry at Egypt's stalwarts, a group
That bears no wrath towards its enemies

37. They seek the impossible in haste
As though they are the forests' blackest lions

38. Each day they gain territory for Egypt
Casting a fiery meteor

39. And stronger than its pyramids is their faith
In destiny and epochs

40. In Egypt's sister, for Egypt's sake, storms
Stirred by neighborly and friendly passions

41. The wrath of the dutiful father arose
A piercing gale dispelling conquerors

42. Can one who sought affection recoil
From difficult paths after courting them?

43. Politics of enticement should be pursued before
Politics of intimidation ends the day

44. With what claim did the opponent's causes arise?
Or with an avenging crocodile's authority?

45. A fleet does not cross the desert, even if
Its stance at gates prevailed for long

46. O you who left life immortalizing
What future generations will inherit

47. Fate robbed the nation of your life while
They recover the stolen enemy corpses

48. And you left your soul in journals wandering
And lay under monuments and domes

49. For you is the richness in memories wherein lies bounty,
Needless of reward or paradise

50. Memories that return you in your image
Time cycles redeeming me excellently

51. Everyone extends ambition’s causes
And writers are most rightful to them