شكوتُ شكوى الأبيِّ الشجو والشجنا

ولم أجد منكمُ قلباً ولا أذنا

I complained the complaint of the afflicted father, lamenting and grieving,

Yet I did not find in you a heart or an ear,

أنا الجريح وما أجزى التي جرحت

أنا الطعين وما أجزى الذي طعنا

I am the wounded, and how unworthy is the one who wounded me,

I am the stabbed, and how unworthy is the one who stabbed.

توزعتنيَ آمالٌ هنالك في

أسر الليالي وآلام تزيد هنا

Hopes distributed me there among the bonds of nights,

And pains increase here,

كابدت بينكمُ وجد الغريب وما

فارقت أهلي ولا هاجرت لي وطنا

I endured among you the loneliness of a stranger, and did not

Leave my family or emigrate to me a homeland,

مبشراً ونذيراً عشت فيه فمن

أساغ لي الماء أو أدلى لي الغصنا

As a harbinger and warner I lived among you, so who

Made the water easy for me or lowered the branch for me?

بعدت من نيله عن بارد طلق

وبت أجرع من أفيان ما سخنا

After being denied it from the cold lips,

I spent the night swallowing the hot intestines.

أبالعقاقير أحشاءٌ تسيرني

من بعد ما أصبحت لا تهضم اللبنا

With medicines, do I have intestines that drive me

After they became unable to digest milk?

أضحت تنازعني الخطو السقام وكم

نازعت في صحتي الأقدار والزمنا

Exertion and disease have come to vie with me, and how much

Did the fates and time vie with me in my health?

لو يُبرِئُ النفسَ ممَّا بتُّ أحمله

من همِّ مصر طبيبٌ أبرأ البدنا

If a doctor could heal the soul from what I carry

Of the concerns of Egypt, he would have healed the body.

عاتبتكم ولكم مني شفيعكمُ

أحق بالعتب من لا يعرف الضغنا

I reproached you, and you have in me an intercessor for you

More deserving of reproach than one who does not know rancor.

أعودكم وأواسيكم وتحملكم

جوانحي وأنا العاني العليل أنا

I return to you and console you and carry you

On my wings, while I am the suffering, the ill one.

وما لقيت من الأعداء مظلمة

كما لقيت من الأحباب مفتتنا

And I did not face from the enemies an injustice

Like what I faced from the loved ones, tempted.

وما بكيتُ على شملي وعافيتي

كما بكيت على ميثاقكم حزنا

And I did not cry over my well-being and health

As I cried over your covenant, grieving.

كادت تضيع حياتي بينكم عبثاً

وما وهَى ليَ إيمانٌ ولا وهنا

My life nearly vanished among you in vain,

And no faith or resolve wavered in me.

أين الدواء لعلي أسترد لكم

عزمي وأشهد يوماً بينكم حسنا

Where is the remedy, that I may regain for you

My resolve, and one day witness goodness among you?

فدى لحرية الوادي الحياة فدىً

وإنّني مستقلٌّ ذلك الثمنا

The life was redeemed for the freedom of the valley, redeemed,

And I am independent, that price.

فكوا وثاقي أسر عنكم إلى أمد

أعيا النواشط في الأمصار والسفنا

So release my shackles, free from you for a period

Whose duration exhausts the seekers in cities and ships.

قاسيت في المدن ما ضاق الضمير به

من يسترحْ في القرى لا يسكن المدنا

I suffered in the cities what the conscience was too narrow for,

One who rests in the villages does not inhabit the cities.

هل لي إلى البيد بعد المدن من سبب

يوماً فقد ملَّ صدري جوَّها العَفِنا

Do I have to the wilderness after the cities any cause

One day? For my chest was filled with their rotten air.

مثلي هو الرجل الحر الوفيُّ على

علاته لمن استرعاه وائتمنا

One like me is the free, loyal man to

His principles, for whoever employed him and entrusted him.

دعا الغريم إلى فصل الخطاب غداً

من ابتلى الداعيَ المدعُوَّ وامتحنا

The enemy called for the discourse to end tomorrow,

Who tries the caller and the called and tests.

خافوا نفوسكمُ من قبل دفعكمُ

ذاك الدخيل القوي الهائل الخشنا

Fear for your souls before your driving away

That strong, tremendous, rude newcomer.

أرى الغضوب الذي طاشت مضاربه

إليكمُ عاد يمحو ما قضى وجنى

I see the wrath that has transgressed its bounds

Returning to you, erasing what he ruled and reaped.

يا حبذا الصلح بين الجانبين كما

تقضي السماء وترضاه له ولنا

O how excellent is reconciliation between the two sides, as

The sky rules and approves for it and for us.

تستقبل اليومَ منه كلَّ ما اشترطت

عليه مصر وشاءت لا كما أذنا

Today it receives from him all that Egypt stipulated

Upon him, and what it desired, not as we permitted.

فما يثور عليها بعد ما سكنت

وما تثور عليه بعد ما سكنا

So it does not revolt against it after it settled down,

Nor does it revolt against him after we settled down.

يرعى ويضمن حقّاً أهلَ مصرَ غداً

لمن رعى لهمُ حقاً ومن ضمنا

It observes and guarantees the right of Egypt’s people tomorrow

For whoever observed their right for them and guaranteed.

دعوا الوزارة للأمر المحيط بها

فللوئام المرجَّى ما بنت وبنى

Leave the ministry for the matter encompassing it,

For the hoped reconciliation what it built and founded,

إن الذي اختلفت فيه ظنونُكُمُ

من ذلك السر قد أرضاكمُ علنا

That which your assumptions differed about

From that secret has pleased you publicly.

دستور مصرَ وليدٌ بينكم فخذوا

من السلام له مهداً ومحتضنا

The constitution of Egypt is a newborn among you, so take

From peace a cradle and wet nurse for it.

وَعدٌ من الدهرِ قد أوفى لمصرَ به

وقد أطلَّ عليكم غيرُه ودنا

A promise from fate that has fulfilled for Egypt through it,

And has turned to you other than it and come near.

وما نريد نصيب العرش منتقصاً

وما نريد نصيب الشعب ممتهنا

And we do not want the share of the throne diminished,

Nor the share of the people debased.

والنيل أجراه في واديه خالقه

إن شاء أطلقه حراً أو اختزنا

And its Creator has flowed the Nile in its valley,

If He wills, He releases it free, or stores it.

لنا الكفاية من أقسامه وله

أن يسقى الشام قسمٌ منه واليمنا

We have enough of its shares, and for Him

Is to water Syria a share of it and Yemen.

وليس يصرفه في غير موضعه

من كاله وهو أنواء ومن وزنا

And none diverts it in other than its place,

Of those who measured it, and it is breaths and weight.