سلوا الأمير وروحي للأميرِ فدى
هل رادَ في الغرب مثلَ النيلِ أو بردى
Ask the prince, and my soul is ransom for the prince,
Has he seen in the West a river like the Nile or meadows like the Fayoum,
وهل رأى كسماء الشرق ناصعةً
من الرقيع أظلت مثله بلدا
Or a sky as brilliant as the luminous East,
That shaded a land like it with drizzle?
وابصر الجدول الصافي تعانقه
فيحٌ إذا تمتريها درتِ الشهدا
And has he seen the pure brooks embracing,
A meadow, if you pass through it, exudes honey,
وهل الم بآثارٍ تحدثه
بمثلِ مجدٍ لهذا الشرق قد وئدا
Has he sensed ruins that tell him,
Of a glory like that of this East that has withered?
فمصر أهرامها عنه مخبرةٌ
وبعلبك عليه شاهدٌ أبدا
For Egypt’s pyramids tell him about it,
And Baalbek bears witness to him forever,
مجدٌ طوى عرشه الدهر العني وما
تمكن الدهر ان يطوي له عمدا
A glory whose throne time has folded, but time
Has not been able to fold its pillars.
مدت إليه الليالي كف سارقةٍ
مضت به ثم مدت للعطاء يدا
The long nights extended to it a thieving palm,
Took it away, then extended a giving hand to the happy West, even if
فأفرغتها على الغرب السعيد ولو
لم ينحل الغرب مجد الشرق ما سعدا
The West had not inherited the East’s glory, it would not have prospered.
So the West increases in blessings day after day,
فذاك يزداد من ايامه نعماً
والشرق يزداد من أيامه نكدا
While the East increases in sorrows day after day.
Greed hovers over its pastures in droves,
تغشى المطامع أسراباً مراتعه
كما رأيت على المخضلة الجردا
Like I saw over the barren land the locusts,
Voracious, neither satisfying their hunger through it,
غرثى فلا أشبعت أرزاقه نهماً
بها ولا ابتل منها بالخضم صدى
Nor harming it with their nibbling.
Awake while we sleep, no executioner to wake us,
يقظى ونحن نيام ليس يوقظنا
جلاد مرهفةٍ فينا وطعنُ مدى
With a drawn sword among us, and no stabbing of outstretched hands.
The wolves are emboldened by the greed of our neighbors,
يستأسدُ الضب من جيراننا طمعاً
فيستهين بليثٍ يسدل اللبدا
So they disdain the old lion who has shed his mane.
Even the cranes walk proudly, so they frighten
حتى البغاث غدا مستنسراً فمشى
يروعُ النسر في واديه منفردا
The eagles in their valleys while they are alone.
They quarrel, but have no awe of the eagles,
تشاكسٌ فل من بأس النسور لدى
جيش البغاث يخوض الحرب متحدا
The army of cranes wages war united.
The East has not declined from its days of joy
فما لوى الشرق عن ايام بهجته
إلا تخاذل أسيادٍ له حسدا
Except through the cowardice of leaders who envied it.
If not for the remaining hopes in some of them
لولا بقية آمال ببعضهم
مثل الأمير لعافت روحه الجسدا
Like the prince, his soul would have forsaken his body.
A scion who struck with their glory tent pegs
سليل من ضربوا من مجدهم طنباً
في مصر دقوا بلبنانٍ له وتدا
In Egypt, and planted with Lebanon for it tent poles.
A spark from the swords of knowledge, whenever it struck
مهندٌ من سيوفِ العلم ما ضربت
به دجى الريب إلا راعهن هدى
The darkness of doubts, it startled them with guidance.
At the side of the noble Abbas, builder of glory,
في جنبِ عباس معقودُ النجادِ وكم
قد قطعت كفَّ عباسٍ به العقدا
How many times have the hands of Abbas severed necks with it!
His morals have taught the West, obliging it
نضته للغرب اخلاق تكلفه
ان لا يظلَّ بوادي النيل منغمدا
To keep its swords sheathed on the banks of the Nile.
The West applauds Egypt whenever the doubt of time
فأكبر الغربُ عضباً مصر تصلته
على الزمانِ إذا ريبُ الزمان عدا
Rebels, and the hand of time becomes hostile.
Muhammad went to the meadows of Syria,
وزورة لربوع الشام راح لها
محمدٌ مثلما راح الندى وغدا
As the dew goes and returns at dawn.
Through it his hand shone, so if the eye of the envious looked at it,
جلت بها يده سفراً إذا نظرت
عين الحسود به لم تأمن الرمدا
It would not be safe from blindness.
It is a hand that gives generously with the jewels of expression, writing
يدٌ تجودُ بدرِّ اللفظِ كاتبةً
كما تجودُ بصرف الدرِّ عند جدا
As it gives generously with scattering pearls when they are threaded.
A testimony to the loftiness of Syria sufficient
شهادةٌ بعلاءِ الشام كافيةٌ
من خطها وكفانا قدرُ من شهدا
From its script, and the judgement of the witness suffices us.
The East hoped through it to shed the garb of morals
توسم الشرق منها ان يُفارق اخ
لاق الثياب ليكسى بعدها الجددا
To clothe itself thereafter in new clothes.
The East, in its affairs it was declining,
فالشرق من أُمراهُ كان في صببٍ
والشرق من أمراه يأمل الصعدا
And the East, in its affairs it hopes to rise.
A stand he took in Columbian soil, wearing
ووقفةٍ في ربى كولومبَ قام بها
محمدٌ يكتسي من مجدها بُردا
From its glory a cloak.
Surrounding him from the outskirts of Syria, a garrison,
يحفه من جوالي الشامُ منتظمٌ
لو خف لم يبغِ جيدٌ غيرهُ عقدا
Which if it lightened, no other neck would wish for a necklace but it.
So he was the proudest of the proudest of their people,
فكان افخر من في قومهم فخروا
وكان امجدَ من في شأنه مجدا
And was the most glorious of those whose affair is glory.
We yearned for Syria until its emigrant visited it,
حنا على الشام حتى زارَ هاجره
إن الحبيب مزور اينما وجدا
For the beloved is visited wherever he is found.
He turned affectionately to bring closer the Syrian,
عطف يعز به الشامي مقتربا
كما يعز به الشامي مبتعدا
As he brings closer to himself the Syrian from afar.
For he saw in him in Egypt a supporter,
فقد رأى منه في مصر له سنداً
وفي سوى مصر منه قد رأى سندا
And in other than Egypt he saw in him a supporter.
Syria and Egypt are but one homeland,
وما الشآم وما مصر سوى وطن
فرد من الشرق في آياته انفردا
A single thread the verses have singled out.
The doubts of time have tied no rope between them,
صنوان ما بت ريب الدهر بينهما
حبلاً على الحب قبل الدهر قد عقدا
A rope of love was tied before time tied it.
Their slopes are covered by the braids of gazelles, and
تغشى سفوحهما غيد الظباء وقد
جرت على إثرها إخوانها الأسدا
Their brothers the lions have followed in their tracks.
Every doe that tread with her hoof
كان كل مهاةٍ أنعلت كبداً
فأثرت في خطاها رسمه الكمدا
Left in her footsteps the imprint of its knots.
Accompanying them are brothers whose honor
يحفها إخوة ما نال عرضهم
عيب ولا زندهم في حادث صلدا
No disgrace has touched, nor has any calamity in time shaken them,
From a people whose souls consider lightly
من معشرٍ ترخص الأرواح عندهم
دون الإباء فلا تجفو عناق ردى
Parting with life, rather than reject an embrace or a covenant.
By God, neither Egypt nor its neighbor Syria became desolate
تاللَه ما أتأمت مصر وجارتها
الشآم غلا مهاة الانس والأسدا
Except by the death of the intimate of mankind and the lions.
Oh valley of grapes, how much affection
وادي القرافة كم حيتك عاطفةٌ
من صدر لبنان تزجي الشوق متقدا
Flowed from the breast of Lebanon kindling passion!
And how many swords poured out in you shining
وكم تصبت سيوفاً فيك لامعةً
قد فارقت في ربى لبنانها الغمدا
Having left behind in Columbian soil their scabbards!
In the care of the Nile are brothers of ours whose chests
في ذمة النيل إخوانٌ لنا ادرعت
صدورهم من رضى عباسه زردا
Are armored by the pleasure of Abbas.
Cared for by my brother Abbas, an overseer
ترعاهم لأخي العباس ناظرةٌ
يقظى ولو كلفت من أجلهم سهدا
Who stays awake even if watching over them exhausts him.
Whoever lives in Syria, life is not dear to him
لا عاش في الشام من تغلو الحياة له
إذا محمد ناداه ليومِ فدى
If Muhammad calls him to a day of redemption.
A youth who tells us about him as-Sulaym, and who
فتىً يحدثنا عنه السليم ومن
مثل السليم فتىً إن حدث اعتمدا
Other than as-Sulaym, if he relates, is to be trusted.
His qualities have delighted me, so I rose through them
قد أطربتني سجاياه فقمت بها
على رياض القوافي شاعراً غردا
As a poet singing in the gardens of poetry.
