يا جارةَ البحرِ العظيمِ سُؤالا

أَشأَوْتِ جَارَك أَمْ شآك جلالا

O mighty ocean's neighbor, I ask

Have you wronged your neighbor or has he wronged you?

صنوانِ إمّا عشتما ورحِبتما

لو لم يَضِق عمَّا وسعتِ مجالا

If only you both lived in harmony and kindness

If only your space were not too confining

قومي نساجلْ في الفَخار ونحتكمْ

للدهر أذ كان الفَخار سِجالا

Let us compete in pottery and judge

Time, if pottery can be proof

يطغَى فيدفع ضلّةً أمواجه

وصفوتِ لم يترك هُداك ضَلالا

It rages, repelling its straying waves

While your elite left not its guidance astray

نقل النهى معْ موجه ونقلتِها

بتموجاتٍ في الأثير تتالى

It conveyed the prohibition with its waves and you conveyed them

In continuous undulations through the ether

وهدى رجال فِنِيقِيا سبل العُلى

وبعثتِنا في العالمين رجالا

And guided Phoenician men to the paths of ascension

And sent us among worlds as men

هو في القديم سمت به أفعاله

وأراك أَسمى في الجديد فَعالا

He in antiquity was characterized by his deeds

And I see you supreme in modernity, in action

ما العز للباقي على أمجاده

كالعز للماضِي بها استرسالا

Glory is not for one who remains prideful of his glories

Like the glory of one who is freely glorified through them

يا جبرُ والجار العظيم كما ترى

أيٌّ أجلُّ على الزمان نوالا

O Byblos, and mighty neighbor, as you see

Who is nobler in time's bestowal?

هي أكبّرتْكَ فَمَثَّلَتْ بك مجدَها

إذ كنتَ للقلب الكبيرِ مِثالا

She magnified you, exemplifying through you her glory

When you were an example for the great heart

ولو أنه راعى الجوارَ وحقَّه

هدى لآلِئَه إِليكًَ وغالى

Had she heeded the neighborly right,

She would have guided her pearls to you and held them precious

ليس الجمالُ بلؤلؤ يُزهى به

الشيبُ أبهى في الرؤوس جمالا

Beauty is not a pearl worn as adornment

Gray hairs are most beautiful in heads

والدرّ أسنى منه في لألائِه

نَفْسٌ كنفسك بالهدى تتلالا

And a soul like yours glistening with guidance

Is finer than its pearls in their settings

عِظَمٌ وقفتَ خلالها ونحوتها

عِظماً فكنتم في العُلى أمثالا

You stood amid greatness and carved it

Into matching greatness, peaks among peaks

أنتم ثلاثة أبحُرٍ بَعُدت مدىً

هِيَ وَهْوَ أمجاداً وأنتَ كمالا

You are three boundless seas I surveyed

She and it; glories, and you perfection

طالعتُ أيامي وطُفتُ بساحها

أبغي شَبابي يَمنَةً وشمالا

I examined my days and wandered their fields

Seeking my youth, left and right

قَسَماً بضاحِكَة المنُى وعهودِها

لم أَلقَ إلاّ ما دعَوه خيالا

By the laughing joys of companionship and its vows

I found only what my imagination conjured

إني أفقت مِن الصّبى فإذا الصبى

ذِكرى مُنىً زالت وعهدٍ زالا

I awoke from childhood, and lo, childhood

Were memories of joy now gone, and vows now gone

أشهى لديَّ من الشباب وعَودِهِ

أدبٌ نشأتُ به فصار خِلالا

Dearer to me than youth and its promises

Is the lore I was raised with, so it became my being

أنا إن نسِيتُ الرائعاتِ من الصّبى

لم أنسَ فيها العالِم المفضالا

If I forget the transports of youth

I'll not forget the supreme teacher

الشيخَ إن شئت الرجالَ لعلمهم

والطفلَ إن شئت الرجالَ خصالا

If you wish men for their knowledge

Or the child for the makings of men

لو كافأتْ أمّ اللغاتِ جهادَه

في نفعها ضَرَبَتْ به الأمثالا

If the mother of languages rewarded his striving

To benefit her, she would make him proverbial

أفشى لنا سرَّ البلاغة علمُهُ

بعضُ الذي يُفشي يكون حلالا

His knowledge disclosed the secret of eloquence

Some disclosure is made lawful

نَهَج الزمانُ جديده فانهجْ بِنا

لُغةً تُشاكل من زمانك حالا

Time forged a new path, so forge with us

A language matching your time's state

عرضَ اللغات أًولها من صانه

فليمضِ تجديداَ وينعم بالا

He presented languages, initiating with the one he protected

So let him proceed renewing it and enjoy tranquility

إِنّا لفي زمنٍ كأنَّ أديبه

حسِبَ البيان مجانةً ودلالا

We are in a time whose literati

Deem rhetoric free and merely demonstrative

الغمدُ أمسك بالفرِنْدِ فلم يَسِل

والغمد أعياه فذاب وسالا

The scabbard held back the polished sword, so it did not flash

But the scabbard wearied it, and it melted and streamed

ليتَ الأُلى اتَّخذوا التجدُّدَ دأبَهم

قالوا بما أُستاذنا قد قالا

Would that the eminent took up renewal as their habit

And spoke as our professor spoke

وطني وهذي الدارُ مأسدةٌ به

فلطالما ولدت له الأشبالا

My homeland, and this abode, prided in him

So it repeatedly spawned for it lions

عرف الجميلَ فصانَهُ في قلبه

وأباحها من نفسه الإجلالا

He knew beauty and sheltered it in his heart

And made it freely flow from his soul

مَن مبلغ الغربَ الجديدَ تحيةً

ألشرقُ يُرسلها إليه مَقَالا

He who conveys the modern West greetings

The Orient sends them a message through him

إن الذين عَنُوا بنا من آله

صاروا لنا يومَ المفاخر آلا

They who cared for us, of his people

Became for us, on the day of boasts, family

أعظمْ بهم قوماً كأنّ نفوسَهم

خُلِقت لتخلُقَ مثلَها الأبطالا

Glorify through them a people, as though their souls

Were created to create the like of heroes

ألأسخياء بما حوت أيمانُهم

فإذا عَدَاك العلمُ جئتَ المالا

The generous, with what their faiths contained

So when knowledge opposes you, you come with wealth

يا بنتَ فاتنة الزمانِ بِعلمها

عالى الزمان بها وليس تعالى

O daughter, charmer of the age with her knowledge

She lifted the age through it, and it lifts her not

مشت النُّهى في رحب ساحِك حُرةً

فمّا فككتِ عن النهى الأغلالا

Prohibitions walked freely in your vast field

For you unleashed prohibitions from their shackles

المستقلُّ بنفسه لك نفسُهُ

أنتِ التي علمت الاستقلالا

The independent, his soul is yours

You who taught independence

عجبي لحاملة الصليب إلى الهدى

إني حملت مع الصليب هلالا

My wonder at the cross' bearer to guidance

I carried with the cross a crescent

عوذت باسم العلم مجدك مِن أذىً

يَصِم الكريم ويثلبُ الأفضالا

I sought refuge in the name of your knowledge's glory from harm

It protects the generous and diminishes the virtuous

يا معمل الأخلاق حسبكِ إننا

كنا لِما علّمتِنا عُمّالا

O crucible of ethics, you've done enough, for we

Were, by what you taught us, doers

البحر جارُك لو قضى لكِ ذمةً

وقضى لجبرٍ ذِمةً تتوالى

The ocean, your neighbor—had it pledged you protection

And pledged Byblos protection in succession

أعطاني الدرر الغوالي منحةً

فصنعتُها لكليكُمَا تِمثالا

It gave me its precious pearls as a gift

So I made them into a statue for both of you