الأزبكية فيها درة عجب

والنجم في الأفق كالنقاد يفليها

Al Azbakiya is a wonderous pearl

And the stars in the horizon like critics around her

تحكى المصابيح حولَيها وبُهرتَها

قلائد الغيد فوضى في تراقيها

The lanterns narrate her beauty and brilliance

Necklaces of clouds in disarray over her head

أما الخميلة فالدنيا إذا ضحكت

أو جنة الخلد أو وشىٌ يحاكيها

As for Al Khamila, when she smiles it's like

Paradise itself or a poem describing her

والأفق ممتلئ نورا وأعجبه

تلك العِصِى إذا انسابت أفاعيها

The horizon is full of light and most wondrous is

When those staffs glide like snakes

وما تيامن يبغى الشرق سابقها

إلا تياسر يبغى الغرب تاليها

What seeks the East competing with its right

Except what seeks the West following with its left

مطويّة صُعُداً والجو ينشرها

منشورة صَبباً والجو يطويها

Folded up the hills and the air spreads them

Spread out the meadows and the air folds them

وكم ثريا وكم جوزاء ما لبثت

حتى خبت غير رسم في مهاويها

How many Pleiades and how many Gemini lasted not

Before fading with no trace into their abyss

مضى على مصر دهرا لم تكن وطنا

وإن توهم أوطانا أهاليها

Ages passed over Egypt, it was no homeland

Though its inhabitants fancied many homelands

ما بين أوّله لو يوعَظون به

وبين آخره ذكر لواعيها

Between its beginning, if they were warned of it

And its end, a reminder if they were conscious of it

كأن ما ساء مما مر بينهما

أهوال حلم سرى بالطفل ساريها

It's as if what was ugly of what passed between them

Were nightmares that flowed through a child's sleep

يبكى ويضحك منها غير مكترث

أَسَرَّ مضحكَها أم ساء مبكيها

He cries and laughs at them, uncaring

Whether its laughter delighted or its tears saddened him