هذي عكاظ وذاك معهدها

أنبغ فتيانها مجددها

This is ʿUkāẓ, and that is its gathering place.

Its most gifted young man is its reviver.

باتت إليها المنى تتوق وقد

طال على الراقبين موعدها

Hopes have come to yearn for it, and

Long have the watchers awaited its appointed day.

في مصر قامت وجل مأثرة

للعرب ما قد أعاد مشهدها

In Egypt it arose—how great an achievement

For the Arabs, to have revived its gathering!

ساوم فيها على جواهره

من في مرائي النفوس ينضدها

There he bargained over his jewels—

He who arrays them in the mirrors of souls.

وأطرب العصر من منابرها

بل كل عصر يجيء منشدها

And from its rostrums the age was enraptured—

Indeed, every age to come—by its reciter.

ونافر القرن في مجاولها

أرصنها فطنة وأشرها

And in its jousting grounds, rivals were challenged

By its soundest in judgment and its most impetuous.

من النهى سمرها التي اشتبكت

والبيض مشهورها ومغمدها

Of reason are its dusky spears that clashed,

And its white swords, drawn and sheathed.

شبان مصر هذي مقاولكم

نافس أغلى الكلام جيده

Young men of Egypt, these are your utterances;

Their finest has rivaled the most precious speech.

فأتقنو مثلها الفعال يعد

لمصر سلطانها وسؤددها

So perfect your deeds likewise, and there shall return

To Egypt her power and her glory.