أَمّا ظُباكَ فَقَد وَفَت بِضَمانِها

فَمَتى تَجودُ بِها عَلى أَجفانِها

Your youth has passed away according to its guarantee

So when will you be generous with it upon its eyelids?

لَكَ كُلَّ يَوم غَضبَةٌ مُضَرِيَّةٌ

تُدني بِها الآجالَ قَبلَ أَوانِها

For you is every day an ailment that harms

It makes the days pass quickly before their time

تَجري بِطاعَتِكَ الخُطوبُ فَإِن عَصَت

يَوماً فَقَد عَرَفَت مَدى عِصيانِها

Troubles will obey you so if it disobeys

One day then it will know the extent of its disobedience

ما يُنكِرُ الإِسلامُ أَنَّ ثُغورَهُ

عَزَّت وَسُمرُ قَناكَ مِن أَركانِها

Islam does not deny that its borders

Became strong and the vines of your spear are among its pillars

أدَّبتَ صَرفَ الدَّهرِ فيها بَعدَما

جَمَحَت حَوادِثُهُ عَلى سُكّانِها

You disciplined the turns of fate in it after

Its events confused its inhabitants

وَصَدَدتَهُ عَن نَهجِها فَكَأَنَّما

وَقَفَت لَكَ الأَفلاكُ عَن دَوَرانِها

And blocked it from its path so it is as if

The orbits stopped for you from their circling

إِن أَظهَرَت لِعُلاكَ أَنطاكِيَّةٌ

حُزناً فَقَد ضَحِكَت عَلى قُطّانِها

If Antioch showed your elevation

Sorrow, then it laughed at its cotton sellers

بَعَثَ البَريدُ مُخَبِّراً عَن وَثبَةٍ

ما كانَ أَحوَجَهُ إِلى كِتمانِها

The postman sent a message about an uprising

Which he was more in need of hiding it

لَمّا أَظَلَّ لَهُ لِواؤُكَ خافِقاً

عُرِفَت وجوهُ الذُّلِّ في صُلبانِها

When your banner's shadow protected him

The faces of humiliation were known in its crucifixions

إِن عادَ نَحوَكَ جانِبٌ مِن كَيدِهِ

قامَت لَكَ الخُطَباء في قسانها

If a side of its cunning returns to you

The orators stood for you in its pulpits