لولا صباك لما حزنت على صبا

يذوي ولا أرسلت دمعي صيبا

Were it not for your youth, I would not grieve for youth

that withers, nor would I pour out my tears like rain.

ان المنية أذبلت بك خير من

رباه لبنان العزيز وأنجبا

Death has withered in you the finest of those

whom beloved Lebanon reared and brought forth.

ما كنت إلا نفحةً من أرزه

حملت إلى المكسيك عرفاً طيبا

You were nothing but a breath from its cedars,

bearing a sweet fragrance to Mexico,

وشرارةً من ناره طارت إلى

فلكٍ بعيدٍ فاستقرت كوكبا

and a spark from its fire that flew

into a distant firmament and settled there as a star,

ورسالةً من روضه وغديره

نضحت عليها الطيب أزهارُ الربى

and a message from its meadow and its stream,

over which the flowers of the hills had poured their perfume.

تليت على أبنائه فرأوا بها

سفر النبوغ محبراً بيد الصبا

It was recited to its sons, and in it they beheld

the volume of genius, illuminated by the hand of youth.

طربوا افتخاراً للشباب يزينه

من حكمةٍ ما قد يفوت الأشيبا

They exulted proudly in a young man adorned

with wisdom that may elude even the gray-haired.

فأقمت والتوفيق صنوك عاملاً

عمل الذي خبر الحياة وجربا

You carried on, with success as your twin, laboring

with the labor of one who had known life and tested it.

قد عشت كالحمل الوديع ولم تكن

إلا على بغي النوائب سلهبا

You lived like a gentle lamb, yet before

the tyranny of calamities you were a spirited steed.

ما كان حظك عاثراً الا بع

مرك إذ قضبت ولم يحن أن تقضبا

Your fortune stumbled only upon your—

—lifetime, when it was cut short before its time.

وذهبت عن دنياك وهي تشد ذي

ل الثوب منك تريد أن لا تذهبا

You left your world even as it clutched your robe’s—

—hem, wanting you not to go.

عاصيتها وعففت عن لذاتها

ومضيت تطلب في سواها مطلبا

You defied it and abstained from its pleasures,

and went to seek your heart’s desire beyond it.

وتركت خلفك مهجةً أخويةً

في دار غربتها تذوب تلهبا

You left behind a brother’s loving heart

to melt with anguish in the house of its exile.

ما راع ريب الدهر في الدنيا أخاً

كأخيك يوم دهى ولا أبكى أبا

Never did the treachery of time so terrify a brother

as yours the day disaster struck, nor so make a father weep.

هذا عليه ضاق لبنان وذا

ك غدا يرى المكسيك سجناً مرعبا

For this one Lebanon narrowed around him, while that—

—one came to see Mexico as a terrifying prison.

فتلاقيا يتساقيان الصبا في

لبنان بعدك لا سواه مشربا

So the two met, giving each other the wine of youth in

Lebanon after you, with no other drinking place.

لا روض شرتونٍ يطيب أريجه

لهما ولا بيروتُ تحلو ملعبا

The fragrance of Shartoun’s gardens no longer delights

the two of them, nor is Beirut sweet to them as a playground.

واللَه لولا الحلم لم يمسكهما

لتخيرا اليأس المفرق مركبا

By God, had forbearance not restrained them,

they would have chosen sundering despair as their vessel.

حيتك يا انطونُ اطهرُ نفحة

أرزية يسري بها نفس الصبا

May the purest breath greet you, O Anton—

a cedar-born breath borne upon the breeze of youth.

نم واسترح في دار غربتك التي

لم ترض فيها العيش إلا متعبا

Sleep and rest in the house of your exile, where

you accepted no life except a life of toil.

يا صارماً مستوحشاً في غمده

صبراً فسوف تعيف ذاك المختبا

O lonely sword within its sheath,

be patient: soon you will scorn that hiding place.

ستصيح امك يوم تنزل لحدها

أهلاً وسهلاً بالحبيب ومرحبا

Your mother will cry when she descends into her grave:

“Welcome, welcome, my beloved—be warmly welcomed!”