هتف الموت وهو ناب وظفر — Harun Hashem Rashid

هتف الموت وهو ناب وظفرُ

لا مفر من قبضتي لا مفرُّ

Death cried out, all fang and claw:

No escape from my grasp, no escape!

وعوتْ تصرخ الرياح وهبَّت

عاصفات جموحة لا تقر

And the winds howled, screaming, and blew

as unbridled tempests that would not rest.

والرعود الرعناء ملء فم الكو

ن دويٌّ على الفضاء وزأر

And reckless thunder fills the mouth of the universe:

a rumble across space and a roar.

والسماء اختفت فلم يبقَ إلا

سحب ترسل الوعيد ونذر

And the sky vanished, leaving nothing but

clouds that send forth threats and warnings.

فإذا الرحمة استحالت بلاء

وإذا الكون واجم مكفهر

Then mercy turned into calamity,

and the universe is silent and grim.

وإذا الماء جامح يغمر الار

ض ويطغى جموحه المستمر

And the water runs wild, engulfing the earth,

and its unceasing wildness exceeds all bounds.

فهوى بالبيوت لم يرحم الزغ

ب ولا رده البكاء المر

So it brought down houses, sparing no fledglings,

nor did bitter weeping hold it back.

رب أمٍ حنت على طفلها البكر

وضمته وهي خوف وذعر

Many a mother bent over her firstborn child

and clasped him, herself all fear and terror.

ألصقته بصدرها خشية الموت

وهل يدفع المنية صدر

She pressed him to her breast for fear of death—

and can a breast ward off death?

وعجوز هوى الجدار عليها

فإذا بيتها المهدم قبر

And an old woman—the wall fell upon her,

and suddenly her demolished house was a grave.

ويتيم قضى أبوه شهيداً

فهو من بعده دموع وفقر

And an orphan whose father died a martyr—

so, after his father's death, he is all tears and poverty.

هدمت فوقع العواصف بيتاً

هو في واقع الحقيقة جحر

The storms' crashing impact demolished a house

that was, in actual truth, a burrow.

وفتاة مكلومة القلب تبكي

فقْدَ خدر وما حواه الخدر

And a girl with a wounded heart weeps

for the loss of her secluded chamber and all it held.

وصغار مشردين بلا أهل

تراموا على الطريق ومروا

And little children, displaced and without family,

flung themselves onto the road and moved on.

وكثيرين قد أفاقوا حيارى

ما لهم ملجأ ولا مستقر

And many awoke bewildered,

with no refuge and no place to settle.

هتفوا بالسماء أن يحبس الغيث

وهيهات أن يغيَّض بحر

They cried to the sky for the rain to be held back,

but how could a sea ever be drained?

ليت شعري أين الذين رموهم

في جحيم من العذاب وفروا

Would that I knew: where are those who cast them

into a hell of torment and fled?

أين من سوروا بيوتاً من الطي

ن وقالوا هنا يطيب المقر

Where are those who walled in houses of clay

and said, 'Here is a pleasant place to dwell'?

هم مقيمون في الديار نشاوى

ونداماهمُ حسان وخمر

They dwell in their homes, intoxicated,

and their drinking companions are beauties and wine.

ومئات من الجنيهات قالوا

هي أجر لما أتوه وشكر

And hundreds of pounds, they said,

were payment for what they had done, and thanks.

وهم المجرمون قد جلبوا الشر

وقالوا بأنّ ذلك خير

Yet they, the criminals, had brought evil,

and said that it was good.

نسل جونبول هؤلاء فمنهم

غمر الظلم شرقنا والنكر

These are John Bull's offspring; from them

oppression and outrage engulfed our East.

انهم يضربون في ظلمة الليل

وقد مزق الدياجير فجر

They move through the darkness of night,

though dawn has already torn the deep darkness apart.

فالشعوب استفاقت اليوم يهدى

خطوها للعلى وللحق ثأر

So the peoples have awakened today; guiding

their steps toward greatness and justice is vengeance.

فلهيب في أرض إيران يشوي

كل مستعمر عليها يمر

So a blaze in the land of Iran roasts

every colonizer who passes over it.

وزئير في أرض مصر ينادي

انها مصر درة الشرق مصر

And a roar in the land of Egypt proclaims:

It is Egypt, the pearl of the East—Egypt!

سوف تلقي بالظالمين الى البحر

ويسمو بها الى المجد نصر

She will cast the oppressors into the sea,

and victory will bear her aloft to glory.

أيها المؤمنون قد جمح الباغي

ففي سمعه عن الحق وقر

O believers, the tyrant has run wild,

for his ears are deaf to the truth.

أنقذوا أنقذوا البقية منا

فهنا الموت جائم مستقر

Save, save those of us who remain!

For here death crouches, firmly settled.