1. ويح الجزائر ما دهاها مالها

    تدعو دراك وتستغيث رجالها

    Alas for Algeria! What has befallen her? What ails her?

    She cries, 'To the rescue!' and implores her men for help.

  2. ويح الجزائر أصبحت مكروبة

    ولهى تئن فمن يكون ثمالها

    Alas for Algeria! She has become grief-stricken,

    Distraught, moaning—who will be her refuge?

  3. مفجوعة ثكلت فتاة برة

    حسناء شوهت المنون جمالها

    Bereaved, she has lost a virtuous maiden,

    A beauty whose loveliness Death has disfigured.

  4. تذري على الأصنام صيب دمعها

    وتردد الزفرات مما نالها

    Over Al-Asnam she sheds a downpour of tears,

    And repeats her sighs for what has befallen her.

  5. أسفي على الأصنام رجت دورها

    تحت الظلام وزلزلت زلزالها

    My grief for Al-Asnam! Her houses were shaken

    In the darkness, convulsed by her great quake.

  6. مارجها الزلزال حتى ردها

    بعد الأناقة دمنة وأحالها

    No sooner had the earthquake shaken her than it left her

    A ruined site after her elegance, utterly transformed.

  7. تجتاح أرواح الشقاء ديارها

    وتجوس أشباح الفناء خلالها

    Spirits of misery sweep through her dwellings,

    And specters of extinction prowl through her.

  8. تقف الوفود بها صوامت تجتلى

    آثارها وترى بها أطلالها

    Delegations stand there silently, surveying

    Her traces, and beholding her ruins there.

  9. تسدى العزاء إلى بقايا أهلها

    بعد المصاب وتشكر استبسالها

    They offer condolences to the survivors of her people

    After the calamity, and praise her bravery.

  10. وتناول الجرحى وسائل برئها

    عطفا وتجزل للجياع نوالها

    And offer the wounded the means of recovery,

    With compassion, lavishing their bounty on the hungry.

  11. بدع أصاب من الزلزال أرضها

    فأزاح بهجة عيشها وأزالها

    An unprecedented earthquake calamity struck her land,

    Sweeping away the joy of her life, erasing it.

  12. ودهى جميع قلاعها ورباعها

    وضياعها ودهى البلاد حيالها

    It devastated all her fortresses and dwellings,

    And her estates, and devastated the lands facing her.

  13. أخلى أواهلها وخلى حولها

    سبعين ألفا تطلب المأوى لها

    It emptied her inhabited dwellings and left around her

    Seventy thousand seeking shelter for themselves.

  14. تتجاذب الخبراء حبل حديثه

    وعلى حقيقته تطيل جدالها

    Experts tug back and forth at the rope of its story,

    And prolong their dispute over its true nature.

  15. هل كان بعض صواعق جوية

    الله قدر وحده إنزالها

    Was it some thunderbolts from the sky,

    Whose descent God alone ordained?

  16. أم كان هزة تربة نارية

    طغت المياه فسببت إشعالها

    Or was it a tremor in fiery soil—

    Waters surged and caused it to ignite?

  17. أم كان بعض تجارب ذرية

    بعض المخابر دبراستعمالها

    Or was it some atomic experiments

    That certain laboratories had arranged to conduct?

  18. لم نكتشف سببا له متيقنا

    إلا افتراضات نحوك خيالها

    We have discovered no certain cause for it,

    Only suppositions whose fancies we weave.

  19. ما في خرائبه لشاهدها سوى

    عبر تفك عن العقول عقالها

    Within its ruins, whoever sees them finds nothing but

    Lessons that loosen the minds' fetters.

  20. فترى الديار على الديار أكبها

    وترى الجبال على الجبال أمالها

    You see it has toppled houses upon houses,

    And see it has tilted mountains upon mountains.

  21. خرت مطأطئة الرؤوس فبددت

    حول السفوح صخورها ورمالها

    They fell, heads bowed, scattering

    Their rocks and sands around the slopes.

  22. فكأنها سفن ببحر هائج

    صخب تميل يمينها وشمالها

    As though they were ships upon a raging sea,

    A roaring sea; they sway to right and left.

  23. ولرب دار هزها من أسها

    وأدارها مثل الرحى واجالها

    Many a house it shook from its foundations,

    And turned and spun it like a millstone.

  24. ولرب دار زجها في هوة

    فمحا مبانيها وأقبر آلها

    Many a house it thrust into an abyss,

    Erasing its structures and burying its people.

  25. وترى أعاصير الرياح أثارها

    حربا تسدد للكبود نبالها

    And you see the whirlwinds it stirred up,

    Waging war, aiming their arrows at the vitals.

  26. وترى الكواكب في سواد قاتم

    مثل الثكالى استشعرت اسمالها

    And you see the stars in a murky blackness,

    Like bereaved mothers, clothed in their tattered rags.

  27. وترى أخاديد الشقوق رهيبة

    في العمق توغل في الثرى ايغالها

    And you see the terrible furrows of the fissures,

    Plunging deep into the earth.

  28. فكأنها أحناء أودية بدت

    لكن بنيران البخار أسالها

    As though the bends of valleys had appeared,

    But it made them flow with the fires of steam.

  29. وترى بها القتلى هنا وهناك قد

    طمس التراب على الثرى أشكالها

    And there you see the dead, here and there;

    Dust has effaced their forms upon the earth.

  30. بينا قضوا في النوم زلفة ليلهم

    في دورهم متفيئين ظلالها

    While they spent a portion of their night asleep,

    In their houses, sheltering beneath their shade,

  31. إذ طاف بالبلوى عليهم طائف

    خسف الديار وعجل استئصالها

    A visitation of calamity swept over them,

    Sinking the houses and hastening their destruction.

  32. عجبا لها من رجة أرضية

    ما شاهد الجيل الحديث مثالها

    How astonishing, this tremor of the earth!

    The modern generation has seen nothing like it.

  33. دوت دوي الرعد ثم تدكدكت

    بالآهلين وأخرجت اثقالها

    It boomed like thunder, then crumbled

    With its inhabitants, and cast out its burdens.

  34. وتتابعت رجاتها وتكررت

    أنكالها فتجرعوا أنكالها

    Its shocks followed one another and recurred,

    Its torments, and they gulped down those torments.

  35. أردت قبيلة (راشد) وتذيلت

    فاشهد (تنس) تجدبها أذيالها

    It laid low the tribe of Rashid and trailed its skirts;

    Behold Ténès: you will find its trailing skirts there.

  36. وبواديى (شلف) ألم و(فضة)

    تبصر إلى (مجانة) استرسالها

    And in the two wadis, Chelif and Fodda, it struck;

    You see its onward spread as far as Medjana.

  37. أودت بأعلاق التلاد وأزهقت

    مهج العباد ومزقت أوصالها

    It destroyed precious ancestral possessions and extinguished

    The lives of people, tearing their limbs apart.

  38. وجرت حوادث قبلها لم تجر من

    قبل الزلازل ضاعفت أهوالها

    Before it, events occurred that had never occurred

    Before earthquakes, multiplying its terrors.

  39. عوت الكلاب وخارت الأبقار في

    هلع كأن قد ألهمت اقبالها

    Dogs howled and cows lowed in

    Panic, as though forewarned of its coming.

  40. ولعل فيها عبرة لذوي النهى

    وهدي يقي النفس اللجوج ضلالها

    Perhaps within it is a lesson for those of understanding,

    And guidance shielding the obstinate soul from its error.

  41. فالنفس لم تترك غرائز خبثها

    والآدمية لم تدع صلصالها

    For the soul has not forsaken its evil instincts,

    And humankind has not cast off its clay.

  42. وبنو الجزائر في سفاسف عيشهم

    خلف اللذائذ ينشدون وصالها

    And the sons of Algeria, amid the trifles of their lives,

    Pursue pleasures, seeking union with them.

  43. ترجو الجزائر أن تناضل حرة

    عن حقها فيعرقلون نضالها

    Algeria hopes to struggle, free,

    For her rights, but they obstruct her struggle.

  44. وتحولت حكامها ظلامها

    وتبدلت انصارها خذالها

    Her rulers have turned into her oppressors,

    And her supporters have become those who abandon her.

  45. فلذاك أنذرنا الإله برجة

    في كل يوم نسمع استفحالها

    Thus God has warned us with a tremor,

    Whose growing severity we hear of every day.

  46. كم كرمة ألوت بها وحديقة

    عصفت بها ومن استغل غلالها

    How many a vine it swept away, and how many a garden

    It ravaged, along with those who harvested its yields!

  47. وسراية قد زينت بأسرة

    تؤوي عرائس لا تحد دلالها

    And a palace, adorned with beds,

    Sheltering brides whose charms know no bounds,

  48. خسفت بها فتقوضت وتعوضت

    من يمنها شؤما يقبح فالها

    Was sunk, fell to ruins, and exchanged

    Its good fortune for ill luck that darkens its omen.

  49. لم تبق ربات الحجال بها كما

    لم تبق إلا في الحضيض حجالها

    It left no ladies of the curtained chambers there, just as

    It left their chambers only in the lowest depths.

  50. كم أسرة في عزها وجلالها

    نشأت أضاعت عزها وجلالها

    How many a family, in honor and grandeur,

    Had grown, then lost its honor and grandeur!

  51. امست مشردة تهيم فقيرة

    تبكي سعادتها وتندب مالها

    It became displaced, wandering destitute,

    Weeping for its happiness, lamenting its wealth.

  52. كم مرضع صاد الحمام وحيدها

    كالنسر صاد حمامة فاغتالها

    How many a nursing mother had her only child hunted down by Death,

    Like an eagle hunting a dove, then killing it!

  53. فتحرقت حزنا عليه وأعولت

    ترجو إغاثة من يعي اعوالها

    She burned with grief for him and wailed,

    Hoping for aid from whoever heeds her wailing.

  54. وخريدة في الآنسات فريدة

    نزل البلاء بها فحير بالها

    And a maiden, peerless among young women,

    Calamity fell upon her, bewildering her mind.

  55. صرخت من الانقاض تسأل نجدة

    عجلى فلبى المنقذون سؤالها

    She cried from the rubble, begging for rescue,

    Swift rescue; the rescuers answered her plea.

  56. خفوا اليها كالوعول تسابقت

    نحو المكانس كي تجير غزالها

    They hastened to her like ibexes racing

    Toward the thicket lairs to protect their gazelle.

  57. واستنقذوها من مخالب موتها

    والخوف يوشك أن يثير خبالها

    And rescued her from the talons of her death,

    While fear nearly drove her into madness.

  58. فنجت وصحت بالعلاج وأصبحت

    برعاية الاسعاف تحمد حالها

    She survived, recovered with treatment, and now

    Under emergency care, she gives thanks for her condition.

  59. إن الجزائر بالجميل مدينة

    لمن افتدى الأسر الضياع وعالها

    Indeed, Algeria owes a debt of gratitude

    To those who rescued the homeless families and sustained them.