أقول وفي فوادي السر ينمو

ودمعي منه لا للحزن ساكب

I say, while the secret grows in my heart,

And my tears from it are not shed in sorrow,

إذا صبر المصاب على بلاء

غدت بلواه اجرا في العواقب

When the afflicted is patient with tribulation,

His afflictions become reward in the end.

على أن لم يكن ما بين يأسي

وآمالي سوى ميقات قارب

Though between my despair and hopes

There was nothing but a period close at hand,

فولى ذو الشماتة عن يميني

وعن يسراي ذو الحسد المراقب

So the gloating enemy turned away from my right,

And from my left the envious observer.

وعدت إلى الجوائب عود صاد

إلى الماء الزلال من السباسب

And I returned to rhymes like a lover returning

To the pure water from the creeks,

فقلت لنفسي ابتهجي بداب

وجد ليس غير الجد صاحب

So I said to myself, rejoice with prose,

Since only prose is a true companion.

فقالت بل سروري في ثناي

على الصدر المعظم ذي المواهب

But it said, “Rather, my joy is in the folds

Upon the great chest full of gifts,

فؤاد الدولة العليا المفدى

يد للملك يمنى والمراتب

The heart of the supreme state, the emancipated one,

A right hand to the king and ranks.

فلولاه لجاب اليأس بيني

وبين جوائبي من كل جانب

Without him, despair would have come between me

And my rhymes from every side,

ولولاه لما ساوت يراع

تدر بها البلاغة عود حاطب

Without him, the winds would not have equaled

The sticks that eloquence made into firewood.

هو الآسى الذي ما كان داء

ليعضله من الخطط النوائب

He is the sorrow that no disease of misfortunes

Could make difficult for him,

فاشكره على ان قد شفاني

بشا في فضله ما ذرّ ثاقب

So thank him that he has healed me

With a gift whose merit no critic pierced,

وهل محيي سواد الشام يعيي

باحياي بتسويد الجوائب

And can the reviver of Syria’s darkness revive me

By reviving the rhymes with darkness?

لو ان الناس كلهم نحوه

لما الفيت منهم قط خائب

If all people were like him,

I would never have found one of them disappointing.

وبين البشر والايناس منه

بشائر عندها تقع المآرب

Between mankind and jinn from him

Are tidings by which hopes are fulfilled,

وبين الاحمدين وبين صبحي

كمال تزهوا عن ذام عائب

And between the two Ahmads and Sobhi

Is the perfection they adorned from blame of a critic.

درارئ دولة سمكت مباني

مفاخرها على اسنى المناقب

The pillars of a state whose glories

Were inscribed with the finest attributes,

سرت ذكرى محامدها وطارت

الى افق المشارق والمغارب

The mention of his praises flowed

To the horizon of east and west,

يصيب نوالها دان وقاص

وتحمدها الاباعد والاجانب

Its fortune reaches the near and the far,

And foreigners and strangers praise it,

ولما جددت منها العطايا

دوارس ذي الرغائب والغرائب

And when its gifts were renewed,

The winds of strange and wondrous things blew,

دعوت لها وذاك على فرض

وارخت انقضى درس الجوائب

I prayed for it, and that is obligatory,

And composed: the lesson of rhymes has ended.”