لانت قناتك للمنون

وقلما كانت تلين

Your spear-shaft yielded to death,

though rarely had it yielded.

فعفا الحمى ممن أعز

وغادر الأسد العرين

So the sanctuary lay desolate, bereft of him who made it mighty,

and the lion left the den.

وبقلب عنوان العروبة

والحجا سكن الوتين

And in the heart of the embodiment of Arabism

and wisdom, the life-artery grew still.

صرخ النعي وما كنى

والناس غير مصدقين

The death notice shrieked, without veiled words,

while the people could not believe.

أمحرر الشعب الهضيم

وناشر الحق الدفين

Can the liberator of the oppressed people,

the revealer of buried truth,

ومقيل عثرة أُمة أعيى

النهوض بها القرون

the one who lifted a nation from a fall—

one the centuries could not raise—

ابن الملوك أبو الملوك

وسيط خير المرسلين

son of kings, father of kings,

and scion of the best of messengers,

يسطيع أن يودي به

داء وتأسره منون

be carried off

by illness, and taken captive by death,

وتنال منه منية

هذا لعمر أبي ظنون

and be struck by mortality?

By my father's life, this is hard to believe.

الموت غاية كل حي

رغم أنف الجاحدين

Death is the end of every living being,

despite the deniers' will.

فأعيذ نفسي كفرها

بقضاء رب العالمين

So I seek protection for my soul against denying

the decree of the Lord of all worlds.

لكنه الخطب العظيم

يشل وعي المطلقين

Yet this is the tremendous calamity

that paralyzes the awareness of men at liberty,

ويطيش أحلام اله

داة ويذهل المتأكدين

and scatters the judgment of the

guides, and bewilders those who were certain.

من أين يترك وقعه

وعيا بمنفى سجين

How could its blow leave

any awareness to a prisoner in exile?

الموت حق لا جدال

وشكه عين اليقين

Death is a truth beyond dispute,

and even doubt of it is certainty itself.

والفرض يوم جلاء مقط

عه سكون الجازعين

And the duty, when its finality becomes clear,

is stillness for the distraught.

لو ترتضى سنن الأسى

بخلا التفجع أن ندين

If grief's customs would permit

us any observance but lamentation...

لا يشمتوا ما في ختام

ك مغمز للشامتين

Let them not gloat: there is in your end

no fault for gloaters to seize upon.

يا رب خذل مثل خذ

لك كان حظ المخلصين

Ah, many an abandonment like

yours has been the lot of the faithful.

هو آية النصر العزيز

وغاية النصر المبين

It is the sign of mighty victory

and the consummation of manifest triumph.

كم سيد قاد الشعوب

وساسها في الغابرين

How many a lord has led the peoples

and governed them in ages past,

قد خاله أَبناء عصره

في عداد العاثرين

yet was thought by the sons of his age

to be numbered among those who stumbled.

ظنوه لم يبلغ بهم

شأواً بتعظيم قمين

They thought he had not brought them

to a height worthy of veneration,

حتى إذا كر السنين

جلا غشاوات العيون

until the passing years

cleared the veils from their eyes.

عرفوه في أوج اله

داية من صفوف المصلحين

They recognized him at the height of

guidance, among the ranks of reformers,

ورأَوه والظفر التليد

جناه بين الفاتحين

and saw him, with enduring victory

as his harvest, among the conquerors.

فتسابقوا عن جهلهم

وعقوقهم يستغفرون

Then they raced to seek forgiveness for their ignorance

and their disloyalty.

هذا يؤلههه وذاك

يعده في المرسلين

One deifies him, while another

numbers him among the messengers.

علمتنا كيف الفن

اء بحب أمتنا يكون

You taught us how self-sacrifice

comes through love of our nation,

وأعز ما ملكت يدان

وما يعز المالكين

and how the dearest thing two hands possess,

the very thing that ennobles its possessors,

في نصرة المثل العلية

كيف يجدر أن يهون

in support of lofty ideals,

ought to be held of little account.

غامرت بالتاج الثمين

تصون بالعرش المكين

You risked the precious crown

to safeguard, with your firmly established throne,

المسجد الأقصى وحق

بني أبيك بفلسطين

al-Aqsa Mosque and the rights

of your father's sons in Palestine.

لا غرو أولى القبلتين

ان اصطفيت لها خدين

No wonder, for the first of the two qiblas,

you were chosen as a close companion.

ما زلت بين حماتها

في السابقين الأولين

You have always been among its defenders,

among the first and foremost.

أأصبت أم أخطات في

مسعاك نهج المحسنين

Whether you were right or wrong in

your pursuit of the path of the beneficent—

شأنان لن يعنى

بمثلهما مؤرخك الرصين

these are two matters

your sober historian will not concern himself with.

يكفيه أنك كنت

عف النفس وضاح الجبين

It suffices him that you were

pure of soul and radiant of brow.

لم تشر إذ بلفور

سامك موطناً دنيا بدين

You did not buy—when Balfour

offered you a homeland—this world at the price of faith.

يا ناهجاً في الملك نهجاً

ما عداه متوجون

O you who followed, in kingship, a path

that crowned rulers never surpassed,

أرأيت كيف العرش حف

بربه المترزقون

did you see how the throne was thronged,

around its master, by seekers of livelihood?

فأتته معرفة الأمين فضل

معرفة الخؤون

He could not discern the trustworthy, let alone

recognize the treacherous,

حتى إذا صح الصحيح

ومحص الذهب القيون

until what was genuine proved genuine

and the smiths assayed the gold,

وأماط عصف الحادثات

هزال من ظن السمين

and the tempest of events laid bare

the leanness of the one thought fat.

هب الذين عليه أمس

تكأكأوا يفرنقعون

Up sprang those who, around him yesterday,

had huddled—now scattering away.

فأتاك أَن وفاءهم

لخلا نضارك لن يكون

Then you learned that their loyalty

would not exist without your gold.

ما كان نابليون يوم عن

المواطن قد أبين

Napoleon, when from

his native lands he was banished,

أوفى بذمة قومه

من منقذ العرب الأَمين

was no truer to his people's covenant

than the faithful savior of the Arabs,

حتى أستحق رعاية

من رهطه والمخلصين

that he should deserve the care

of his kinsmen and the devoted.

فتواثب الأتباع غصة

أسرة يتناهبون

His followers leapt forward to share the bitter pang

of his captivity, vying with one another.

وتألبوا بالألب ح

ول شماله وعن اليمين

They banded together in a throng

around his left side and his right.

ما فيهم إلا عب

اقرة الملاحم والزبون

Among them were none but

geniuses of pitched battles and fierce war.

ما آثروا نقض الع

هود وإن يظلوا منعمين

They did not choose to break their

pledges, even to remain in comfort;

بل فضلوا أسر الوفاء على

القيادة ناكثين

rather, they preferred captivity in loyalty to

command as oath-breakers.

في حين أنت به بقبرص

لا خلبل ولا خدين

While you, meanwhile, were in Cyprus,

without intimate friend or companion,

إلا شجى الذكرى وغص

ات التلفت والحنين

with only memory's sorrow and the choking

pangs of looking back and yearning

لمرابع عنها تسائل

زائريك بكل حين

for haunts about which you ask

your visitors at every opportunity:

كيف القويرة والشراة

وكيف سهل بني عمون

How are al-Quwayra and al-Sharah,

and how is the plain of Bani Ammon?

وجبال أيلة هل بها

كلأ يسر الزائرين

And the mountains of Ayla—is there

pasture there to delight visitors?

ما بعد جنات النخيل

مسرة للناظرين

Beyond the palm gardens there is no

delight for beholders.

أين الذين بمخلوانك

بالعشي يرابطون

Where are those who, at your retreat,

stood watch at evening,

وهتافهم ما رن

أصفرك الأغر له رنين

whose cheering rang so long as

your gleaming gold rang out?

لو قلت إنك ربهم

لرأيتهم بك مؤمنين

Had you said you were their god,

you would have seen them believing in you.

والتاج أضيع ما

يكون مؤيداً بمنافقين

And a crown is most wasted

when upheld by hypocrites,

كالعضب تثلمه الغضاض

ة بالحمائل والجفون

like a keen blade nicked by flaws

in its baldrics and scabbards.

هل ثغر ليماسول أقرب

عندهم منه الحجون

Is Limassol's port farther away

from them than al-Hajun?

فأتوك أيام الحجاز

بكل يوم وافدين

Yet in the days of the Hejaz they came to you,

arriving every day,

عن حبهم وولائهم

ووفائهم لك معربين

declaring their love and allegiance

and their fidelity to you.

حتى إذا انقلب لزمان

عليك آضوا خارجين

Then, when time turned

against you, they became rebels.

فإذا الذين عليهم أَقبلت

عنك المدبرون

And those toward whom you had turned

were the very ones who turned away from you.

وإذا بأحفظهم يخون

وإذا بأصدقهم يمين

And behold, the most faithful of them betrays,

and the most truthful of them lies;

وإذا بمن أنكرتهم

بشجى مصيرك يشرقون

and those whom you had disavowed

choke on grief at your fate.

عبراً بلوت أبا الملوك

فعظ بواقعها البنين

You have endured lessons, father of kings;

so admonish your sons with what occurred.

صلى الإله عليك يا

ابن الطيبين الطاهرين

May God bless you, O

son of the good and pure,

وعلى الذين قضوا بعهدك

للعروبة عاملين

and those who died in your time,

laboring for Arabism,

في ساحة الشهداء من

فيحاء دينهم تدين

in the Martyrs' Square of

Fayha—you profess their faith—

في الرمل من بيروت في

عكاء في مضض السجون

in the sands of Beirut, in

Acre, in the anguish of prisons,

في الغوطتين وفي العراق

وفي مشارق ميسلون

in the two Ghutas, and in Iraq,

and in the eastern reaches of Maysalun.

شم المعاطس مجدهم

في المجد منقطع القرين

Men of lofty noses, whose glory

has no peer among glories.

عذراً إذا رحل الحسي

ن إليهم في المسرعين

Pardon Hussein, if he departed

to join them among those who hasten,

ليعيش بين الخاملين

ويقيم بين الميتين

to live among the obscure

and dwell among the dead,

والموت قد ألقى إليه

بصولجان الخالدين

though death has already bestowed on him

the scepter of the immortals.

إن الحسين لفكرة

صدر البقاء بها ضنين

Hussein is indeed an idea

that the breast of eternity guards jealously.

لا بالغ كر الردى

منها ولا فر السنين

Death's charge cannot reach it,

nor can the flight of years.

فليتق اللّه الألى

هرعوا إليه يؤبنون

Let those fear God who

have rushed to eulogize him:

إن الرثاء به أَحق من

الفقيد الفاقدون

for lament is more fitting

for the bereaved than for the departed.

يا راية نشر الحسين على

الكماة الدارعين

O banner that Hussein unfurled above

the valiant, armored warriors,

فأتوا لنصرة رمزها

من كل حدب ينسلون

they came to champion its emblem,

hastening from every height,

وتواثبوا في ظلها

حوض الردى يتواردون

and leapt beneath its shade,

coming in turn to the pool of death.

ما الموت جد الموت

يوم مثار نهضتهم مجون

Death—death in earnest—was no

frivolity on the day their uprising broke out.

عقد الزمان لهم لواء

الفتح حيث يحاربون

Time bound for them the banner

of conquest wherever they fought.

فانظر إلى الأَتراك في

عرض البلاد مقهقرين

Look at the Turks, across

the breadth of the land, driven back;

وانظر إلى الصحراء تزخر

بالذين هم الذين

and look at the desert teeming

with men who are men indeed.

وبكل بيت شرحبيل

وبكل حي أرطبون

In every house a Shurahbil,

in every quarter an Artabun:

أسد المفاوز ما ثنتهم عن

معاقلها الحصون

lions of the wastelands, not turned back

from their strongholds by the fortresses,

حتى اشتروا بدمائهم

حرية الوطن الغبين

until their blood would have bought

the freedom of the wronged homeland

وبنيه واستقلالهم

لولا حبائل مكمهون

and its sons, and their independence,

but for McMahon's snares.

يا رايه قد كان هذا

شأنها في السابقين

O banner, such was

its role among those who went before.

من بعد مولاك الحسين

حمى جلالة من يصون

After your master Hussein,

who will guard the sanctuary of majesty?

للّه مما قد قض

اه اللّه إنا راجعون

To God, after what

God has decreed, we indeed return.