1. The poetry of the age has a constellation in the skies
Its citadels were guarded by the stars

2. Its sides were protected from every fool
Ignorant, not enlightened by knowledge

3. So whoever touches it without comprehending
The spirit of the age, will be stoned by it

4. And every talent not guided
By the lantern of knowledge, cannot be esteemed

5. So the poetry of our time is a generous king
While the poetry of ignorance is an outcast devil

6. Al-Khalil had established for it long ago
A foundation, then Suleiman built it up

7. He started while a fiery adolescent
And completed while a wise mature one

8. He cultivated its garden and clothed its soil
With permanent pleasant shade

9. So from the maidens of Heaven he was inspired
For that reason, bliss in it is pure

10. Then Al-Haddad came seeking
To protect it, and his principle was sound

11. With iron he built a fence around it
Shawqi endowed it with light, the revered

12. On the summit of meanings he appeared
So Egypt said: The revered has returned to me

13. In the land of Thebes he has miracles
Wondrous were those, shameful acts

14. While his guidance is total pride
If he threw his staff for a people to die

15. With Cleopatra kings were infatuated
But if published through it they are ever confused

16. So in his poetry is magic
Dawning upon it is his handsome rising

17. And yearning for meanings was imprinted
Upon the hearts of the twisted, since primordial times

18. And what is the delicate meaning but a breeze?
Can bodies live without the blowing wind?

19. This breeze assumed the form of a pearl
And this pearl is your refined utterance

20. And wondrously this pearl remains
A living father while an orphan

21. If Sesostris awakened one day
He would be confounded and overtaken by vile envy

22. For the beauty in his ostentatious crown
Is not like the beauty attained by the well-crafted pearl

23. Your poetry, O Samir of yearning, brings to life
Hearts which profound ignorance had claimed

24. You were the motivator giving life, far removed
From meeting an ignoble fate

25. Your poetry, like the mention of you, like my praise
Despite the hostility, remains eternally

26. So leave your wine, then set forth
Composing, the gentle breeze accompanies you

27. You have accustomed the infatuations of glories
With it to intoxication, so come my boon companion

28. And cast off procrastination, for we are bored
By your stinginess, O generous one

29. And there is no merit in hesitation after generosity
While the master of stinginess is dispraised and blamed

30. You promised an ode every year
Woven by natural talent

31. So the promise went, more lost than the wishes
Of a youth desiring wealth while destitute

32. Your radiant passions complain to us
Of injustice, while you are not unjust

33. They demand you fulfill the promise of the free man
But how can the wise free man not fulfill?

34. You poured towards the twins, and that is an elite one
While aloofness refuses the kind nature

35. So be dutiful to your first-born, O her father
Extremely gentle, compulsory obligations

36. And include with her chaste sisters
The mirror of whose beauty is the universe

37. Behold the tower our hands built
Is now complaining while you are its adversary

38. You neglected its castles unjustly
Are you pleased if touched by a corrupt one?

39. And I am the poet of the desert, alone
I find comfort in it, so worries disturb me

40. And staying in place pains me, without a companion
And silence sickens me, without a speaker

41. And a friend comforts me, without a friend
I am thrilled if you chant, and don't chant

42. I complained to you, my praiser, about my dream
Your affection, so arbitrate, you are forbearing

43. And tell your friend the bishop: come
For the worries to be blessed by our nineties

44. So in the blessings of liturgies you pray
At dawn, for us is immense reward

45. And from the scents of your holiness with meanings
Your prayers attain eternity, you who fast

46. You were raised bowing in hated land
So the misguided wicked one returned to guidance

47. And he who covers the temples while a child
An infant, does not abandon it when weaned

48. So how much did you hear Apis the sacrosanct
Reciting hymns, by which dreams wander

49. The voices of Memnon singing
The sunrise, when darkness roams

50. More wondrous than the sublimity that enchanted minds
By which we attained anxieties

51. And Amon welcomes you, qualified
While you are the learned priest, the erudite one

52. So renew your determination for composing, the ties
Have been loosened, and the departed cannot be blamed

53. And if you stayed in our meters, the rhymes
In our bishop you will eternally stand