إِثنِ عَنانَ القَلبِ وَاِسلَم بِهِ
مِن رَبرَبِ الرَملِ وَمِن سِربِهِ
Turn loose the heart’s reins, and surrender it
to the desert’s gazelle-herd, to its roaming band;
وَمِن تَثَنّي الغيدِ عَن بانِهِ
مُرتَجَّةَ الأَردافِ عَن كُثبِهِ
to graceful maidens swaying from their bān tree,
their haunches trembling beyond its dunes.
ظِباؤُهُ المُنكَسِراتُ الظُبا
يَغلِبنَ ذا اللُبِّ عَلى لُبِّهِ
Its gazelles put even sword-blades to shame
and overcome the discerning man’s own reason.
بيضٌ رِقاقُ الحُسنِ في لَمحَةٍ
مِن ناعِمِ الدُرِّ وَمِن رَطبِهِ
Fair ones, delicately lovely at a glance,
of tender pearl and fresh pearl alike;
ذَوابِلُ النَرجِسِ في أَصلِهِ
يَوانِعُ الوَردِ عَلى قُضبِهِ
slender narcissus-spears planted there,
and roses ripening upon their stems.
زِنَّ عَلى الأَرضِ سَماءَ الدُجى
وَزِدنَ في الحُسنِ عَلى شُهبِهِ
Upon the earth they adorned the night’s sky
and surpassed its shooting stars in beauty.
يَمشينَ أَسراباً عَلى هينَةٍ
مَشيَ القَطا الآمِنِ في سِربِهِ
They walk in herds, unhurried,
like sandgrouse secure within their flock—
مِن كُلِّ وَسنانٍ بِغَيرِ الكَرى
تَنتَبِهُ الآجالُ مِن هُدبِهِ
each one drowsy-eyed, though sleepless,
at whose lashes mortal spans reach their end.
جَفنٌ تَلَقّى مَلَكا بابِلٍ
غَرائِبَ السِحرِ عَلى غَربِهِ
An eyelid that welcomed Babylon’s angel
and the wonders of magic upon its edge.
يا ظَبيَةَ الرَملِ وُقيتِ الهَوى
وَإِن سَمِعَت عَيناكِ في جَلبِهِ
O doe of the sands, may love spare you,
even if your eyes hear of its onslaught;
وَلا ذَرَفتِ الدَمعَ يَوماً وَإِن
أَسرَفتِ في الدَمعِ وَفي سَكبِهِ
and may you never shed tears, although
you have poured them out lavishly.
هَذي الشَواكي النُحلُ صِدنَ اِمرأً
مُلقى الصِبا أَعزَلَ مِن غَربِهِ
Those slender, healing shafts have captured a man,
struck down by youth, the edge gone from his sword.
صَيّادَ آرامٍ رَماهُ الهَوى
بِشادِنٍ لا بُرءَ مِن حُبِّهِ
A hunter of gazelles whom passion felled
with a young gazelle whose love admits no cure.
شابٌّ وَفي أَضلُعِهِ صاحِبٌ
خِلوٌ مِنَ الشَيبِ وَمِن خَطبِهِ
He is young, yet within his ribs dwells a companion
free of gray hair and free of calamity.
واهٍ بِجَنبي خافِقٌ كُلَّما
قُلتُ تَناهى لَجَّ في وَثبِهِ
A frail, fluttering thing lives beside me—whenever
I say it has settled, its leaping grows more violent.
لا تَنثَني الآرامُ عَن قاعِهِ
وَلا بَناتُ الشَوقِ عَن شِعبِهِ
The gazelles never turn away from its open ground,
nor longing’s daughters from its mountain path.
حَمَّلتُهُ في الحُبِّ ما لَم يَكُن
لِيَحمِلَ الحُبُّ عَلى قَلبِهِ
I burdened it in love with what it was never
made to bear, laying love upon its heart.
ما خَفَّ إِلّا لِلهَوى وَالعُلا
أَو لِجَلالِ الوَفدِ في رَكبِهِ
It stirred only for passion and exalted glory,
or for the august delegation within its caravan.
أَربَعَةٌ تَجمَعُهُم هِمَّةٌ
يَنقُلُها الجيلُ إِلى عَقبِهِ
Four men are united by one resolve,
handed down by one generation to its posterity.
قِطارُهُم كَالقَطرِ هَزَّ الثَرى
وَزادَهُ خِصباً عَلى خِصبِهِ
Their procession, like rainfall, shook the earth
and made its fertile soil more fertile still.
لَولا اِستِلامُ الخَلقِ أَرسانَهُ
شَبَّ فَنالَ الشَمسَ مِن عُجبِهِ
Had creation not seized its reins,
it would have reared and reached the sun in pride.
كُلُّهُمُ أَغيَرُ مِن وائِلٍ
عَلى حِماهُ وَعَلى شَعبِهِ
Each is fiercer than Wāʾil in guarding
his sanctuary and his people.
لَو قَدَروا جاؤوكُمُ بِالثَرى
مِن قُطبِهِ مُلكاً إِلى قُطبِهِ
Could they do so, they would bring you the whole earth
as a kingdom extending from pole to pole.
وَما اِعتِراضُ الحَظِّ دونَ المُنى
مِن هَفوَةِ المُحسِنِ أَو ذَنبِهِ
That Fortune obstructs desires is no
fault or sin of the benefactor.
وَلَيسَ بِالفاضِلِ في نَفسِهِ
مَن يُنكِرُ الفَضلَ عَلى رَبِّهِ
Nor is he a man of virtue in himself—
he who denies his lord’s beneficence.
ما بالُ قَومي اِختَلَفوا بَينَهُم
في مِدحَةِ المَشروعِ أَو ثَلبِهِ
Why have my people fallen into dispute
over praising the enterprise or disparaging it?
كَأَنَّهُم أَسرى أَحاديثُهُم
في لَيِّنِ القَيدِ وَفي صُلبِهِ
As though they themselves were captives of their talk,
in the fetter’s yielding links and its rigid ones.
يا قَومِ هَذا زَمَنٌ قَد رَمى
بِالقَيدِ وَاِستَكبَرَ عَن سَحبِهِ
My people, this is an age that has cast off its chain
and grown too proud to drag it behind.
لَو أَنَّ قَيداً جاءَهُ مِن عَلِ
خَشيتُ أَن يَأتي عَلى رَبِّهِ
Had a fetter descended upon it from above,
I would fear it might overpower its lord.
وَهَذِهِ الضَجَّةُ مِن ناسِهِ
جَنازَةُ الرِقِّ إِلى تُربِهِ
This clamor rising from its people
is bondage’s funeral procession toward its grave.
مَن يَخلَعُ النيرَ يَعِش بُرهَةً
في أَثَرِ النيرِ وَفي نَدبِهِ
Whoever casts off the yoke lives for a time
still marked by the yoke and by its scars.
يا نَشأَ الحَيِّ شَبابَ الحِمى
سُلالَةَ المَشرِقِ مِن نُجبِهِ
O rising youth of the people, defenders of the homeland,
noble progeny of the East,
بَني الأُلى أَصبَحَ إِحسانُهُم
دارَت رَحى الفَنِّ عَلى قُطبِهِ
sons of those whose beneficence set
the millstone of art turning on its axis.
موسى وَعيسى نَشَآ بَينَهُم
في سَعَةِ الفِكرِ وَفي رُحبِهِ
Moses and Jesus grew up among them,
amid breadth of thought and spaciousness.
وَعالَجا أَوَّلَ ما عالَجا
مِن عِلَلِ العالَمِ أَو طِبِّهِ
They treated—first among all they treated—
the world’s affliction, or its healing.
ما نَسِيَت مِصرُ لَكُم بِرَّها
في حازِبِ الأَمرِ وَفي صَعبِهِ
Egypt has not forgotten your devotion
in settled affairs and in difficult ones.
مَزَّقتُمُ الوَهمَ وَأَلِفتُمُ
أَهِلَّةَ اللَهِ عَلى صُلبِهِ
You tore illusion apart and brought into fellowship
God’s crescents upon the cross.
حَتّى بَنَيتُم هَرَماً رابِعاً
مِن فِئَةِ الحَقِّ وَمِن حِزبِهِ
At last you built a fourth pyramid
from the company of truth and its party.
يَومٌ لَكُم يَبقى كَبَدرٍ عَلى
أَنصارِ سَعدٍ وَعَلى صَحبِهِ
One day of yours remains like a full moon above
the supporters of Saʿd and his companions.
قَد صارَتِ الحالُ إِلى جِدِّها
وَاِنتَبَهَ الغافِلُ مِن لُعبِهِ
The matter has now become earnest,
and the heedless one has awakened from his play.
اللَيثُ وَالعالَمُ مِن شَرقِهِ
في هَيبَةِ اللَيثِ إِلى غَربِهِ
The lion—and the world from its East—
stand in the lion’s awe as far as its West.
قَضى بِأَن نَبني عَلى نابِهِ
مُلكَ بَنينا وَعَلى خِلبِهِ
It was decreed that we build upon its fang
the realm we built, and upon its claw;
وَنَبلُغُ المَجدَ عَلى عَينِهِ
وَنَدخُلُ العَصرَ إِلى جَنبِهِ
that we attain glory beneath its very eye,
and enter the modern age beside it;
وَنَصِلَ النازِلَ في سِلمِهِ
وَنَقطَعَ الداخِلَ في حَربِهِ
that we make peace with whoever comes in peace,
and cut down whoever enters in war;
وَنَصرِفَ النيلَ إِلى رَأيِهِ
يَقسِمُهُ بِالعَدلِ في شِربِهِ
that we direct the Nile according to its counsel,
dispensing its waters justly;
يُبيحُ أَو يَحمي عَلى قُدرَةٍ
حَقَّ القُرى وَالناسُ في عَذبِهِ
granting or withholding with power
the villages’ due, while the people drink its sweet water.
أَمرٌ عَلَيكُم أَو لَكُم في غَدٍ
ما ساءَ أَو ما سَرَّ مِن غَبِّهِ
It is a matter that may count against you or for you tomorrow,
whatever good or evil follows from it.
لا تَستَقِلّوهُ فَما دَهرُكُم
بِحاتِمِ الجودِ وَلا كَعبِهِ
Do not deem it slight—for your age is neither
Ḥātim in generosity nor his Kaʿb.
نَسمَعُ بِالحَقِّ وَلَم نَطَّلِع
عَلى قَنا الحَقِّ وَلا قُضبِهِ
We hear of truth, yet never have we seen
truth’s spears or its swords.
يَنالُ بِاللينِ الفَتى بَعضَ ما
يَعجَزُ بِالشِدَّةِ عَن غَصبِهِ
Through gentleness a young man attains some things
that by violence he is powerless to seize.
فَإِن أَنِستُم فَليَكُن أُنسُكُم
في الصَبرِ لِلدَهرِ وَفي عَتبِهِ
If you seek reassurance, let your reassurance lie
in patience with time and with its rebuke,
وَفي اِحتِشامِ الأُسدِ دونَ القَذى
إِذا هِيَ اِضطُرَّت إِلى شُربِهِ
and in the lion’s dignified shrinking from a mote
when it is compelled to drink despite it.
قَد أَسقَطَ الطَفرَةَ في مُلكِهِ
مَن لَيسَ بِالعاجِزِ عَن قَلبِهِ
A sudden leap has toppled, within his kingdom,
one who was well able to overturn it.
يا رُبَّ قَيدٍ لا تُحِبّونَهُ
زَمانُكُم لَم يَتَقَيَّد بِهِ
Many a fetter may displease you,
though your age has never been bound by it;
وَمَطلَبٍ في الظَنِّ مُستَبعَدٍ
كَالصُبحِ لِلناظِرِ في قُربِهِ
and many an aim deemed distant in expectation
is like dawn, near to the watcher.
وَاليَأسُ لا يَجمُلُ مِن مُؤمِنٍ
ما دامَ هَذا الغَيبُ في حُجبِهِ
Despair does not become a believer
so long as this unseen future remains behind its veils.
