مصاب الحمى والشعب فيك أم الحربُ

يعاني الحمى فيها الشدائدَ والشعبُ

The fever-stricken, yet the people in you, or is it the war,

Suffers from fever, in it the calamities and the people,

وما الرعب من نار العدى وحديدهم

ولكنه من هول فرقتك الحرب

And it is not the terror of the enemy's fire and steel,

But it is from the awfulness of how the war separated you.

تلقَّيتُ أنباء الشفاء مريحة

فلم أمس حتى جاء في الخبر الصعب

I received the news of recovery comfortingly,

I had barely touched until the difficult news came.

فنحت وناح الطير حولي وماج بي

مكاني وغاض الماء والتهب العشب

So I wailed and the birds wailed around me and stirred in me

My place, and the water raged and the grass caught fire.

وأصدق باك في النوائب من بكى

على شامخ يهوي ومؤتلق يخبو

And I believe your weeping in afflictions more than one who wept

Over a towering falling and a clinging fading away.

طلبت بجد الربض والوثب غاية

فلما انقضى الأمر استوى الربض والوثب

I sought seriously the bounding and leaping an utmost goal,

But when the matter ended the bounding and leaping became equal.

ونازعك الجنبين شغلك والضنى

فهذا له جنب وهذا له جنب

And your side competed with your occupation and care,

So this one has a side and that one has a side.

وقاسيت جهد الدفع والجذب فيهما

فلم تسترح حتى انقضى الدفع والجذب

And I suffered the effort of pushing and pulling between them,

You did not rest until the pushing and the pulling ended.

ذهبت شهيد الداء بعد معارك

طوالٍ وما فيها طعانٌ ولا ضرب

You went as a martyr of the malady after long

Wars without stabbing or striking in them.

وكم حملت تلك الجوانح لوعةً

وأنت بعقبى قومك المغرم الصب

And how much did those wings carry agony,

While you are behind your infatuated people.

وكيف يصيب الطب في الناس علة

وقد خانهم في دفع علتك الطب

And how can medicine cure an ailment in people

When it failed them in treating your ailment, medicine.

خلا منك بيت المجد والنيل والندى

ونادي المعالي أم خلا الشرق والغرب

Empty of you is the house of glory, the Nile and dew,

And the caller to loftiness - did the East and West empty?

وضمك داج في ثرى الأرض موحش

وكم ضاق عن آمالك العالم الرحب

And a burial enclosed you in the earth’s dreary soil,

And how narrow the ample world became for your hopes!

وإنيَ من مثوى الهدى وهو قبلتي

قريب وهل يغني من الصامت القرب

I - my guidance’s abode is my qiblah even before it

Near, but can nearness benefit the silent?

أطوف به مستروحاً من عبيره

وقد صبَّحته من بواكرها السحب

I circumambulate it comforted by its fragrance,

I greeted it from its early clouds.

فرائض من أرضَى العباد صنيعه

وكرَّم في الدنيا مكانتَه الرب

Duties of one whom the servants were pleased with his deeds,

And the Lord honored his status in the life.

ولو كان جثمان الكريم كذكره

لما نال من جثمانك الطاهر الترب

If the generous one’s body were like his mention,

Dust would not have taken your pure body.

أحنُّ إلى الماضي وما هو راجع

وقد سار بي فيما أحاذره الركب

I yearn for the past and it will not return,

And it has marched with me to what the company warned against.

كأنّيَ حادي الظاعنين يمرّ بي

بلا رجعة سربٌ ويتركني سرب

It is as if I - reprimanding the dissenters - am passed by

An irredeemable caravan that leaves me caravan.

صبرت على رزئي وخطبيَ فيهمُ

وما هان فيك الرزء عنديَ والخطب

I endured my calamity and worries in them,

And the calamity and worries did not diminish to me in you.

ومن لي بأن ألقى محياك ثانياً

وقد قامت الأستار دونك والحجب

And who can I meet your existence a second time

When the curtains and veils came between you and I?

تعللت بعد الأربعين بسلوة

فمرت وأشجاني كما هي والكرب

I pretended - after forty - composure,

So it passed while my sorrows are still and the anguish.

وقد جاء للذكرى الوفيون والتقى

شيوخهم الأبرار والفتية النجب

The loyal and the devout came for the commemoration,

Their righteous elders and excellent youth.

يفيضون بالنجوى حناناً ورحمة

إليك وما النجوى ضجيج ولا صخب

Overflowing with intimate whispers of affection and mercy

To you - and the whispers are neither clamor nor noise.

تواصوا بما استرعيتهم وهو بيتهم

إلى الأبد السعيُ الموفَّق والدأب

They counseled what you charged them with - it is their home -

For eternity, the successful endeavor and work.

فخذ من دموعي ما تشاء ومن دمي

فعيني كما عاهدتها لك والقلب

Take from my tears what you wish and from my blood

For my eyes are as I pledged to you and the heart.

وإن كان عندي الآن من حقك الجوى

فقد كان من حقي بك التيه والعجب

If I have from your right the passion now,

Then your confusion and wonder were my rights in you.

وساير شعري عدل حكمك والتقى

على الخير ما تصبو إليه وما أصبو

And make my poetry match your justice and piety

For the good you aspire to and what I aspire to.

وما عرض الدنيا لديك أمانتي

ولكنه الوجدان عندك واللب

The life did not present to you my loyalty,

But it is the consciousness with you and the heart.

وأنت الذي سار الأعزة حوله

فلا حزمهم يكبو ولا رأيهم ينبو

You whom the dignitaries walked around

So neither their resolution falters nor their opinion comes undone.

وأيدك الأحرار من كل جانب

بعزم الأولى شابوا وعزم الأولى شبّوا

The freemen supported you from every side

With the resolve of loyalty they arose and with loyalty’s resolve they grew up.

وكم بطل أغنى عن السيف رأيه

مضاء وأغنت عن كتائبه الكتب

And how many a champion whose opinion made him

Needless of the sword, radiant, and books made him needless of brigades.

ولو شئت في واديك من بأس أهله

لرد العوادي نجدة دونه هبّوا

Had you wished in your valley the might of its people,

The valleys would have come rushing to help it without it calling.

ولاسمك وهو اسم الكرامة ما جرت

به في مجاريها الكواكب والشهب

For your name - which is the name of magnanimity - however

The planets and meteors moved in their courses.

ومن كان في كل الضمائر خالداً

فما تُعْوِزُ الخلدَ التماثيلُ والنصب

Whoever survives in all consciences

Statues and monuments cannot lack survival.

وكل زعيم سار سيرك في الحمى

فآثاره أشياعه فيه والحزب

And every leader who walked your path in purpose,

His partisans are his traces in it and the faction.

ومن يترك الدنيا وكان تراثه

محامده للعقب ضاعفه العقب

Whoever leaves the life while his inheritance is

His praises to the progeny - the progeny will double it.

ومن لم تمكنه من المجد نفسه

فليس له إلا على نفسه العتب

Whoever is not enabled by himself for glory,

Then he has none to blame but himself.

ومن لم يكن للملك بالروح فادياً

فليس له فيه طعام ولا شرب

Whoever was not for the kingdom redemptive in spirit,

Then he has in it no food or drink.

وما الجدب فقدان الحمى ثمراته

ولكنّ فقدان الرجال هو الجدب

The barrenness is not the loss of its fruits to the fever,

But the loss of men - that is the barrenness.

تكاد تشب الحرب في الأرض كلها

فلا يابس يبقى عليها ولا رطب

War almost catches fire in the whole earth,

So no dry or wet remains in it.

سباعاً يسير الناس فيها ضوارياً

ففي جهةٍ ليثٌ وفي جهة ذئب

Predators, while people walk in it straying,

They want it as booty and they demolish it,

يريدونها نهباً وهم يهدمونها

وليس سوى الأطلال بينهم النهب

And between them is only looting ruins.

If only you were among its witnesses the day of reconciliation,

فليتك يوم الصلح بين شهوده

لتمحوَ بعد الحرب ما جنت الحرب

To erase after war what war begot.

And complete for the valley its right from fate -

ويكمل للوادي من الدهر حقه

قضاؤك فيه لا السؤال ولا الغصب

Your decree in it, not questioning or usurpation.

If the era's sin is that you are absent,

وإن كان ذنب الدهر أنك غائب

ففي الحاضر الموجود قد غفر الذنب

Then for the present existent the sin has been forgiven.

It suffices you after the benevolent ones, successors

وحسبك بعد الطيبات خلائقاً

شقيقاك والنجلان والأهل والصحب

Who are your brethren, and the two sons, and the family and companions.

You left them for good after you as brothers

تركتهمُ للخير بعدك أخوةً

تؤلِّفهم فيه الرعاية والحب

Caring and love makes congenial.

And every place among them for you they beautified -

وكل مكان بينهم لك أجملوا

جميلك فيه عامريهمُ خصب

Your beauty in it - its prosperous settlers.

Traits of magnanimity working while they have nothing

سجايا كرام يعملون وما لهم

سوى عزة الأوطان غنم ولا كسب

Except pride of the homelands - neither spoils nor profit.