لا القوم قومي ولا الأعوان أعواني — Ismail Sabry

The people are not my people, nor the helpers my helpers,

If a laggard falters on the day of attaining glory.

And I am not, unless pharaohs uphold me,

From among you, a Pharaoh exalted in throne and stature.

Nor am I this valley's mighty ruler if

Those mountains of its remain safe from my helpers' raids.

Do not approach the Nile unless you do some work;

For its sweet water was not created for a sluggard.

Reach the Milky Way through toil before the Nile's watering place,

Or seek something else to quench a thirsty person's thirst.

And build as the generations before you built;

Leave no glory after you for anyone else.

I have commanded you: obey your lord's command.

Let no dissuader turn a listener away from obedience.

For kingship is command, with acts of obedience racing it,

Side by side toward the goals of excellence.

Leave nothing impossible in its impossibility,

Until it unveils for you the face of possibility.

An utterance descended from its speaker's throne

Upon the shoulders of heroes and brave men.

The earth swayed in terror before it, and to it submitted

All the rock and flint in al-Muqattam.

Had anyone but Pharaoh spoken it to an assembly

Outside Egypt, it would have been judged a waking person's dream.

But if Pharaoh called to a mountain with it,

Its stones answered in the builder's grasp.

And multitudes supported him; with them overflowed

The plains of a valley full of the people's past.

They build what leaves the generations standing bewildered,

Before it, between admiration and submission.

Of all that no mind has brought forth, nor have

Two eyes in the universe opened upon its like.

And when they fly to a task, they resemble

Jinn flying at a command from Solomon.

Out of loyalty to the one who commands, not fear or greed;

But they were created seekers of perfection.

Those pyramids of theirs are living art, fashioning

From rocks, towers above Saturn.

An age has passed over them, while they mock

The palaces and vaulted halls that are brought low.

Night and day have taken from them no more

Than ants take from the sides of Nahlan.

As though they, with calamities at their sides

Lying slain, were devils' handiwork for a devil.

Delegations from all the earth came to them,

Hastening in longing for what immortalized the mortal.

So their immensity made everything else seem small,

And their structure detracted from every other structure.

And whoever denied the people's excellence returned admitting it,

Praising the people in private and in public.

Those temples in the cities bear witness

That they were pioneers, people of profound endeavor;

And that Pharaoh in strength and power,

And Pharaoh's people in daring, were equals.

When a stone bore witness to them

In a temple, the others stood forth with proof.

As though they, with peoples bowing humbly

Before them, were pages from another world.

Within them, images greet the eye,

Eloquent in symbol, circling the walls.

Had they been given a voice, it would have

An echo to terrify the deaf among humankind and jinn.

Where are those who inscribed their lives in rock

And dwarfed every possessor of kingship and authority?

They perished, and states perished in their wake,

And were enfolded in chronicles and shrouds.

And left behind them an everlasting war

In the universe, between stones and ages.

O sleeper, with spears a forest surrounding you,

Awake, for many a state of safety is unsafe.

And look around you in fear and caution,

For the forest, since its creation, has been the wolves' abode.

The sun, though it is the sun, was not safe from what

The fates concealed for it within the folds of time.

Abd al-Hamid, what you have done will be counted tomorrow

Among humankind, and placed upon the scales.

If good outweighs—what an excellent deed good is!—

You will enter the company of the illustrious and blessed.

Or if evil prevails—may its band never exist!—

You will be counted in its edifice as the strongest of pillars.

If you are not—may time never turn you from a goal—

The chief of sultans, be the chief of pharaohs.

Indeed, we have known you never to accept, when

Proud kings race toward their goals, anything inferior.

Let the people's judgment not burden you, for tomorrow it

Will be heard anew before the Sultan of sultans.

O people of Uthman, hail in your gathering places

The age of right guidance, and feather might with gentleness.

If you support it, you will see the fulfillment of what

The souls of those millions aspired to.

Truth is radiant: unsheathe in defense of its sanctuary,

Before swords, swords of proofs.

Do not wear its garment among humankind tomorrow,

Stained with the blood of the poor people.

O you who leave the realm desolate save for its majesty,

And clothe the people in the garment of honor and humiliation,

And make command and judgments among them

The secret of angels or the secret of devils.