يا آل نحاس وآل بحري

دامت لكم علياؤكم وأحر

O house of Nahhas and house of Bahri,

May your eminence endure—as well it should!

رجالكم أرقى رجال القطر

بناتكم أنقى بنات القطر

Your men are the noblest men of the land;

your daughters are the purest daughters of the land.

قد كرمت خصالكم في السر

وقد سمت خلالكم في الجهر

Your virtues have indeed been noble in private,

and your qualities have risen high in public,

حتى غدا بين حلي العصر

مناطكم مناط عقد الدر

until, among the ornaments of the age,

your place became that of a necklace of pearls.

عزيز خنكي علم في مصر

بعلمه تنفس كل مصر

Aziz Khanki is a luminary in Egypt;

through his learning, all Egypt drew breath.

تاهت بعرسه سماء الخدر

على مطالع النجوم الزهر

The bridal chamber's heaven gloried in his wedding,

above the rising places of the radiant stars.

شيحا فتى سمح رفيع النجر

صفاته أسمى صفات التجر

Shiha is a gracious young man of noble stock;

his qualities are the loftiest among merchants.

ليلاه ما زالت عروس الشعر

تطلع شمسا تحت جنح الشعر

His Layla is still the bride of poetry,

rising as a sun beneath the wing of her hair.

ما جهد نظمي أو وفاء نثري

بمدح يوسف السني القدر

What can my verse's effort or my prose's fullness achieve

in praising Yusuf, of exalted worth,

وزوجه ذات النهى والطهر

بنت الوزير الألمعي الحر

and his wife, endowed with wisdom and purity,

daughter of the perceptive, noble minister?

عزيز بحري أخ عن خبر

يجدر أن ندعوه بالبحر

Aziz Bahri is a brother proven by experience;

it is fitting that we call him the sea.

فهو بأجمع المعاني مثر

وخير من أدى زكاة الوفر

For he is rich in every sense,

and the best of those who pay the alms due on wealth.

وبهجة ساطعة بالبشر

أعارت الليل ضياء الفجر

And Bahja, radiant with gladness,

lent the night the radiance of dawn.

دل اسمها دلالة اسم العطر

على جمال نوعه في الزهر

Her name pointed, as a perfume's name points,

to the beauty of its kind among flowers.

أليس في الختام أحلى ذكر

ذكر فتاة برئت من نكر

Is not the sweetest mention at the close

the mention of a maiden free from reproach?

عنيت إيزابيل أخت البدر

ذات الصفات الباهرات الغر

I mean Isabel, sister of the full moon,

endowed with dazzling, radiant qualities:

من حسن وجه وجمال فكر

وخلق لم يتسق لبكر

beauty of face and beauty of thought,

and a character never before found in a maiden.

على مثال خير أم تجري

ونعمت النسبة يوم الفخر

She follows the example of the best of mothers,

and splendid is that lineage on the day of pride!

قد ظفرت بالخاطب الأبر

بطيب النفس رحيب الصدر

She has indeed won the most virtuous suitor,

kind of soul and broad of heart.

ليسعدا ما شاء صفو الدهر

بالمال والولد وطول العمر

May they both be happy as long as time's serenity wills,

with wealth, children, and long life.