1. أديتَ واجبكَ المقدَّسَ كاملاً

    وتركتَ للأجيالِ ذكركَ شاغلا

    You fulfilled your sacred duty completely,

    And left your memory to engross generations.

  2. مهلاً أبا الأحرار مهلاً إن تكن

    أعمارُ مثلك كالشموسِ مراحلا

    Gently, father of the free, gently—if

    Lives like yours pass through stages like the suns,

  3. إنَّا بنى الأرضِ الذين شقاؤهم

    باقٍ نودِّعُ فيكَ ظلاًّ راحلا

    We, the sons of earth, whose suffering

    Endures, bid farewell in you to a departing shade.

  4. كنا نَفئُ إليكَ في آلامنا

    ونرى رجاحَتكَ الملاذَ الكاملا

    We used to seek refuge with you in our pain,

    And see in your sound judgment the perfect refuge.

  5. والآنَ واحتنا الفسيحةُ أصبحت

    حُلماً وعانقت الفناءَ الهائلا

    And now our spacious oasis has become

    A dream, and embraced dreadful annihilation.

  6. كَم كان خصمك خاذلاً ليقينه

    وأبيتَ أن تلفىَ لخصمك خاذلا

    How often your adversary was disloyal to his conviction,

    Yet you refused to be found disloyal to your adversary.

  7. ولكم أغثتَ من الكوارث جاحداً

    وفككت مغلولاً فراحَ مُخاتلا

    How often you rescued an ingrate from disasters,

    And freed a shackled man, who then went off deceitfully.

  8. ولكم رددتَ من السهامِ مكافحاً

    ولكم غَضضتَ عن العداءِ مُجاملا

    How many arrows you turned back, fighting,

    And how often you overlooked hostility out of courtesy.

  9. وعُرفتَ في الحالينِ أكرمَ كَيسٍ

    نسىَ الإساءةَ بل أقالَ الجاهلا

    In both you were known as the noblest of wise men,

    Who forgot the offense—indeed, pardoned the ignorant.

  10. قد بحَّ صوتُك هادياً ومنادياً

    أمماً بنكبتها تُطيعُ الهازلا

    Your voice grew hoarse, guiding and calling

    Nations that, amid their calamity, obey the jester.

  11. وإذا تيقَّظَ أى شعبٍ ببنها

    ألفيته الأسرَ المسئَ الغافلا

    And whenever any people among them awoke,

    You found it a captor, a wrongdoer, heedless.

  12. يا ليتها في الرُّزءِ تدفن عجزَها

    شمماً وتدفنُ ذلةً وسلاسلا

    Oh, if only in calamity they would bury their weakness

    With proud defiance, and bury humiliation and chains.

  13. صورٌ تزاحمَ رسمها في عبرتَيِ

    لما أتيتك راثياً ومُسائلا

    Images, their outlines crowding into my tears,

    When I came to you, lamenting and questioning.

  14. يا ضيعةَ الإنسانِ في استعلائه

    وكأنما بالمجدِ أصبحَ زائلا

    Oh, how man is lost amid his exaltation!

    As though glory had made him vanish.

  15. ولقد بَحثتُ فما غَنمتُ حقيقةً

    ودفنتُ آمالي وعشتُ الثَّاكلا

    I searched, but gained no truth,

    And buried my hopes and lived bereaved.

  16. وسَخرتُ من علمي ومن أدبي معاً

    وأبيتُ أن أُدعى الحكيمَ العاقلا

    And I scoffed at my learning and my literary art alike,

    And refused to be called wise and rational.

  17. وظللتُ يقذفني الخضم بموجهِ

    من بعدِ ما أبصرتُ فيك الساحلا

    And still the deep flung me about with its waves,

    After I had seen in you the shore.

  18. ولو ان إنشادى الدماءُ لشاعرٍ

    حملَ الجراح ولم يزل مُتفائلا

    Even if my song were blood, it would be for a poet

    Who bore wounds and remained hopeful,

  19. أبداً يصارعُ عقلهُ وجدَنهُ

    ويَرىَ الوجودَ مآسياً ومهازلا

    Whose mind forever wrestles with his feelings,

    Who sees existence as tragedies and farces,

  20. ويرى مماتَ النابهينَ جريمةً

    مهما تُسَّوغَ والقضاءَ القاتلا

    And sees the death of the eminent as a crime,

    However justified, and fate as the killer.

  21. أرقد صديقي في خلودك وَحدهُ

    إن لم نَجد نحنُ الخلودَ الشاملا

    Rest, my friend, in your immortality alone,

    If we ourselves find no all-embracing immortality.

  22. أرقد فحسبك ما حَملت من الأذَى

    وداع الممات يُميتُ داءكَ عاجلا

    Rest—you have borne enough suffering;

    And death's herald swiftly kills your illness.

  23. فلقد خلقتَ بما صنعتَ مآثراً

    ملءَ البيانِ خوالداً وحوافلا

    For through your work you created glorious deeds,

    Filling eloquent speech, immortal and abundant.

  24. لو يعرف الطِّبُ الصَّناعُ وسيلةً

    لأعَادَ صوتك بالمواعظِ حافلا

    If skillful medicine knew a way,

    It would restore your voice, brimming with counsel.

  25. أو يَعلمُ الجراحُ أىَّ يتيمةٍ

    قُطعت لدامَ من الفجيعةِ ذاهلا

    Or if the surgeon knew what peerless jewel

    Had been severed, he would remain dazed by the tragedy.

  26. عانى وعالجَ والمماتُ مرفرف يقظ

    يُخيِّبُ آسياً أو حائلا

    He struggled and treated, while death hovered, watchful,

    Thwarting a healer or one who stood in its way.

  27. لبنانُ لم يبرح بذكرك شامخاً

    ويظل معتزاً بفكركَ طائلا

    Lebanon still towers, proud of your memory,

    And remains mighty, proud of your thought.

  28. جَبلٌ من الفكرِ الأصيلِ جيوشه

    زحفت بمثلكَ كالغزاةِ جحافلا

    A mountain of authentic thought, whose armies

    Marched forth with men like you, like invaders in legions.

  29. إن تنسكَ الدنيا ولن تنسى فقد

    أحيالكَ الأرزَ الوضئَ مشاعلا

    If the world forgets you—and it will not—then indeed

    It has kindled the radiant cedars as torches for you.

  30. أهلَ الهدى صُونوا تُراثا للهدَى

    فخماً وذودوا عن عُلاَها الباطلا

    People of guidance, preserve a heritage of guidance,

    Splendid—and ward falsehood away from her heights.

  31. عاشت لكم ذُخراً ومجداً صائلا

    فابنوا لها ذُخراً ومجداً صائلا

    She has lived for you as a treasure and a glory charging forth;

    So build for her a treasure and a glory charging forth.

  32. وإذا مضى علمٌ فأحيوا ذكرهُ

    علماً تناسخَ نورهُ متواصِلا

    And when a luminary passes, keep his memory alive,

    As a beacon whose light is reborn in unbroken succession.