1. I yearn for Egypt though I am not Egyptian
But the bird of my heart knows best its nest

2. If not for my love of Egypt and her people
I'd not have been in Qatar nor lived in Qatar

3. A country whose people enjoy their fortune
A land trailing its dress in green plants

4. A land where Islam holds its head high
And above it the banner of victory is tied

5. And if I said my love for my homeland surpasses my love for it
I'd be a brother of deceit, my secret self differing

6. And I have not found among its people other than a master
Whose face shines with amiability and good news

7. It shows you among the flags of eloquence in its meadow
Songs that would sing with sorcery if songs could be sorcerous

8. When their pens stir in the inkwells
Their hands sing of whites and browns

9. And if the night of a ruler of black nights darkens
The faces of opinion from them dawn like full moons

10. And a noble ethic which its fragrance has perfumed
From flowers, even if the breeze blows upon the flowers

11. And these are the men of knowledge in it
Seas have poured forth, as if the sea were devoid of islands

12. God be with you, O precious Egypt, whenever
I leave Egypt, leaving my heart in Egypt

13. O God be with you, O precious Egypt, whenever
My eyes turn toward your magical scene

14. When I see the Nile flowing I reckon it
With my tears for our nearing separation flowing

15. And when my eyes fall upon one of her pyramids
I feel it is the mountain of worries weighing on my chest

16. God be with you, O precious Egypt, whenever
I restrain my tears and the train carries us on

17. It's as if its boilers seethe with grief
Though no grief remains except mine

18. It roars angrily after my abduction
And with me it goes folding up the desolate earth

19. God be with you, O precious Egypt, whenever
I seek patience, if patience there remains

20. Shall I leave in Egypt happiness and delight
And go where no one knows, most miserable?

21. Shall I move from Egypt and head west
Wretchedness, by God, befits the free poet!

22. Shall I bury myself alive, O people, in my homeland?
Yes, it is my grave! Yes, it is my grave!

23. No grave contains aught but death and desolation
And those are in the living of coercion and compulsion

24. My love for Egypt humanized me, my love for a homeland has
In leaving it, joined me; and in joining it, left me

25. It rose up until I saw the west beneath it
Spread its wings and fluttered like an eagle

26. But as God's decree wills, and all that
God's command in His creation wills, occurs

27. We see it dangling between two times
Until it fell, and now it has hit bottom

28. I poured my tears upon my chest for it
But my pouring tears upon my chest does not suffice

29. We closed our eyes on the cradle of conceit
No grieving one closes an eye gently on the bowstring

30. And they made their hatreds arbitrate when they took control
So they were wicked in litigation, scheming

31. A spark of yearning tortures me
So I panic for the memory, and it kindles from ember

32. I was overcome in my affair, and my Lord is witness
The overwhelmed has no stratagem against his affair

33. But it is like the sea in fate's alternation
If the sea's tide lengthens, the ebb is inevitable

34. Excuse me, I implore you, and know
That I, by God's truth, most deserve excuse

35. It's not poetry I overflow with
But the melting of passions in poetry