1. When will you make me happy, my homeland?
My aspirations have slipped from my hands.

2. I left you, though yearning does not bring me close to you,
Nor does patience, if I call upon it, help me.

3. I battled the nights for your sake, and he who
Struggles against his nights is exhausted.

4. As for youth, it wearied of wishes,
And as for time, it did not make me happy.

5. Your lands, so protect their glorious realm,
For if you do not protect, you will not be praised.

6. Do not make light of its honour, for loyalty
Is a sign of the nobility of the devoted one.

7. I missed manliness on the day ransom was wanted
For my country, and I could not ransom myself.

8. When a man dies ransoming his homeland,
He has died a martyr's death indeed.

9. Lofty ruins, desolate and vacant,
With many crumbled pillars and columns.

10. When birds took refuge there to rest,
Their warbling echoed over the barren hills.

11. Gloomy landmarks with no cheerful dawn,
Darkness shrouds their nights in blackness.

12. Empty of its inhabitants, it is no longer their home,
But a perpetual abode for nomads.

13. Separation afflicts us though we are neighbours
To the loud-voiced whose outbursts foam.

14. Neighbours whose company is like what is in the ribs—
There is no escape unless their heat cools down.

15. When we approached the land of Lebanon,
Yearning for that distant loved one filled us.

16. We did not pasture there, but we cried
Over a desolate, barren mountain.

17. Time has dressed in its hoary raiment
And donned the garb of decay.

18. Cast a glance in which you can see a sky
Looking out over totally flattened plains.

19. Homes deserted by their people
Who migrated to every plenteous refuge.

20. Leaving only the child in his cradle
And the helpless old man sitting there.

21. Councils of governance, when gathered,
Include only those with greedy demands.

22. Resources flow wastefully, so they are not
Cooled from their raging heat.

23. Monasteries for religion are evened out
At the peaks of loftiness they climbed.

24. Their monks enjoy wealth and deprive
Every zealous youth his livelihood.

25. What we built, my homeland, the burning
Sorrows in our breasts have not died down.

26. The grapevines complained and we complained of desolation,
But which of them increases in pain?

27. Lessen the misery of your people,
And be patient with their wretched life.

28. How often a homeland has stifled one of sound reason
And he turned away to a more distant home!

29. How many a youth has lost sleep
And many a seeker of livelihood has not rested!

30. Ask, my homeland, what favour you have done me
Other than being the place where I was born!

31. Yes, it would have been blasphemy had I left it,
If my intention had been suspect.

32. Were it not for my loyalty to honourable people
And the land where my glorious father lies,

33. I would have abandoned it without turning back
So we would not have met again.

34. I love my country even if I gained nothing
From it but injustice, to which I'm unaccustomed.

35. Your lands are all your hopes, so rise up
For them as much as you can, to defend them.

36. Whenever Lebanon is mentioned, say: my homeland,
My God, pray for it and bow down.