مهد الصبا ما للصبا عهد

ولى الصبا فسلمت يا مهد

The days of youth, what are youth's days?

Youth departed, farewell O cradle.

هذا ربيب الأمس فيك فما

أبقى له من بعدك البعد

This is yesterday's child in you, so

After you, what remains for him but distance?

عكس الزمان عليه حالته

ففؤاده لا الغور مسود

Time has reversed his state,

So his heart is not an unfathomed sea.

يبكي على الأعوام خالية

يا مهد فيه وحلمها شهد

He weeps over vacant years,

O cradle! In it and their dreams are gone.

ويذيبه أسفٌ على وطن

أودى بريق عيشه النكد

Melancholy dissolves him for a homeland

Whose brightness of life misery has erased.

وطنٌ ذوت خضراء نجعته

للرائدين وعكر الورد

A homeland whose green places luxuriance has dwelt,

For pioneers and the rose's scent is spoiled.

ومشى الهوان على جوانبه

متهادياً فتنكب المجد

And disgrace walked on its flanks

Staggering, so glory falls prostrate.

الوعد مطعمه ومشربه

يا ويح حيٍّ قوته الوعد

Its food and drink are promise,

Woe to a living one whose food is promise.

يا مهد ما الذكرى بنافعةٍ

لا هندُ راجعةٌ ولا دعد

O cradle, of what use are memories?

There is no returning India or evening conversation.

ضدان ماضينا وحاضرنا

والضد يظهر حسنه الضد

Our past and present are opposites,

And opposites show the excellence of their opposites.

مالي وللذكرى فقد طويت

تلك السوانح وانقضى العهد

What have I to do with memories? For I have folded

Those adventures and their time has passed away.

فكفى التآسي بالكرام وان

قلَّ الكرام بنا متى عدوا

But it suffices to grieve for the generous, and if

The generous among us were few when counted.

هذا مقامٌ ضمَّ شملهم

عقداً فريداً حبذا العقد

This is an abode which has gathered their group,

A unique knot, excellent is the knot!

فهم الأُلى لولا عوارفهم

لطوى المروءة والندى لحد

They are the lofty ones, were it not for their nobility

Manliness and dew would have been folded up and buried.

يا مهد حسبك أن جلهم

نشآت حضنك أيها المهد

O cradle, it suffices you that the best of them

Were nurtured in your embrace, O cradle!

فخراً فما ربيت غير فتى

عند الكريهة عوده صلد

Honor! For you have not nurtured other than a youth

Firm when faced with calamity, his determination like iron.

يحنو على الوطن العزيز ولا

يعيي لدى الجلى له جهد

Who loves the precious homeland and does not

Tire before the majestic, his effort fails not.

فسل المهاجر عن فضائله

يعبق من الدنيا لك الحمد

Ask the émigré about his virtues-

From the world for you rises praise.

يا روضة الأحداث لا برحت

تسقي الندى اغصانك الملد

O meadow of events, you have not ceased

To water your branches that yield before being cut.

وعليك عين اللَه ساهرة

أبداً وريب الدهر مرتد

Upon you ever God's eye is wakeful

And the caprice of fate is turned back.