غضّ الشباب و أن تلن عذباته

خلقت لإدراك المنى عزماته

The passion of youth, though tormenting, is meant for realizing ambitions

Youth is tender, and though its branches may be soft,

God is greatest! Youth bears the cross

Its resolves were forged to achieve aspirations.

الله أكبر للشباب صليبة

للغامزات من الخطوب قناته

For leering eyes, their veil is modesty

God is great! What firmness youth possesses,

God is greatest! Glorious is youth

Its spear-shaft withstanding the probing trials of calamity.

الله أكبر للشباب جلاله

ملء العيون و حسنه و سماته

Filled with beauty, charm and grace

God is great! What majesty belongs to youth,

The nation relying on their right does not despair

Filling the eyes with its beauty and noble traits.

لا يجزع الوطن المدلّ بحقّه

ألباسمون مع الشباب حماته

With youth, defenders wear their armor

Let not the homeland, proud of its rights, despair,

The honor of the nation's glory is in debt to the youth

For the smiling youths are its true protectors.

في ذمّة الفتيان رابة مجده

إنّ الشباب وفيّة ذمّاته

For the youth's loyalty fulfills all trusts

In the trust of the young men lies the banner of its glory,

Patience has gone, hasten to your goals

For the covenants of youth are ever loyal.

خلّوا الأناة و أسرعوا لمناكم

عار الشباب العبقريّ أناته

The genius of youth laments its slowness

Cast aside delay and hasten to your aspirations,

Crown of the peninsula, cradle of your ancestors

The shame of brilliant youth is sluggishness.

تاج الجزيرة و هي مهد جدودكم

نزل القضاء فنكّست راياته

Destiny has let its banners fall

The crown of the Peninsula, the cradle of your ancestors—

It complains while you listen, so what ails it?

Fate has struck it, and its banners are bowed.

يشكو و أنتم سامعون فماله

لا يستجاب ، و للشباب شكاته

Its complaints remain unanswered

It complains while you listen, so why is it

I weep for the peninsula and what the enemy desires

Left unanswered? It is to the youth its grievance is addressed.

إنّي لتبكيني الجزيرة . ما نوى

عنها العدوّ و لا ونت غاراته

And my tears did not stop its raids

Truly, the Peninsula makes me weep. The enemy

When the sorrowful cry and there is no poet

Has not turned away from it, nor have his raids ceased.

و إذا الحزين بكى و لم يك شاعرا

فالشعر ما نطقت به عبراته

Poetry articulates what their tears express

And if a grieving man weeps, though he be no poet,

The breezes of fertile Lebanon are sick

Poetry is what his falling tears speak.

نفحات لبنان الأشمّ عليلة

و حمى الجزيرة عذبة نفحاته

And the peninsula's protection is in its pleasant breeze

The breezes of lofty Lebanon are gentle and refreshing,

The sands of fertile Syria yearn

And the sanctuary of the Peninsula breathes sweet airs.

تشتاق ناضرة الشام رماله

و تحبّ خضرة أرزكم فلواته

And its peaks love your green slopes

The radiant Levant longs for its sands,

It complains of its wounds to its enemies

And its desert wastes love the greenery of your cedars.

يشكو جراحته إلى أعدائه

اين الشفاء و جارحوه أساته

Where is the cure when the wound inflictors are the healers?

It complains of its wounds to its very enemies;

Alas! The claimant will not succeed in this cause

Where is the cure when its wounders are its physicians?

هيهات ينجح في القضيّة مدّع

و خصومه يوم الحساب قضاته

While the opponents are the judges on day of judgement

How impossible for a claimant to win his case,

The small homeland is lost with multitudes

When his adversaries on the day of reckoning are his judges.

واضيعة الوطن الصغير . تعدّدت

أديانه و عروشه و لغاته

Of religions, dynasties and languages

Alas for the loss of the small homeland. They have multiplied—

And for every arrogant person who forgot its misery

Its religions, its thrones, and its languages.

و لربّ مختال تناساه الرّدى

ووددت لو بكرت عليّ نعاته

I wish the news of his death had come early

Many an arrogant man has been forgotten by death,

I pray for the dispersal of nations, so I hate

While I wished his mourners had come to me early.

صلّى لتفريق الشعوب فبغّضت

عندي الديانة والتقى صلواته

The religion and piety of his prayers

He prayed for the division of nations, and so

Biting the shackles, does his escape not tire you?

His prayers made religion and piety hateful to me.

هذا أسيرك يا مذاهب ملّه

عضّ القيود ، ألم يئن إفلاته ؟

After today, no doctrine will demolish

Here is your prisoner, O sects, grown weary of it all;

The shrine of Arabism which youth built

He has bitten his chains, has the time not come for his release?

هيهات بعد اليوم يهدم مذهب

صرح العروبة و الشباب بناته

I worshipped God, not His hell

Never again shall sectarianism destroy

In my view, essence of piety is its secret, not its heavens

The edifice of Arabism, for the youth are its builders.

إنّي عبدت الله ، لا نيرانه

سرّ التقى عندي و لا جنّاته

Reason led me to Him, not His Qur'an

I have worshipped God; it is not His fires

Nor the verse of The Greatest nor His Torah

That are the secret of my piety, nor His paradises.

و العقل دلّ عليه لا قرآنه

في آية الكبرى و لا توراته

Religion is the religion of love, so it is my doctrine

Reason is what guided me to Him, not His Quran

Even if it has few worshippers in the East

In its greatest verses, nor His Torah.

الدين دين الحبّ فهو عقيدتي

و لو أنّه في الشرق قلّ دعاته

I read the horizons as a scripture descended

The true religion is the religion of love, and it is my creed,

What a wonderful scripture its verses of stars

Even if its advocates in the East are few.

و الأفق أقرأه كتابا منزلا

نعم الكتاب نجوم آياته

When prostrating towards the house of Arabism

I read the horizon as a revealed book;

It is not its summit or plain I aim for

What an excellent book, whose verses are the stars.

بيت العروبة حين أسجد قبلتي

لا طوره قصدي و لا عرفاته

Some names of Arabism: its cedars

The house of Arabism is my Qibla when I prostrate;

On days of pride: the Nile and Euphrates

Neither Mount Sinai nor Mount Arafat is my destination.

من بعض أسماء العروبة أرزه

يوم الفخار و نيله و فراته

The grove brimming with beautiful wild plants

Among the names of Arabism are its Cedar

Why would it mind variations in its flowers?

On the day of glory, its Nile, and its Euphrates.

كالروض ملتفّ الخمائل ناضرا

ما ضرّه لو نوّعت زهراته

It suffices me if I mention its chanters and people

Like a radiant, lush garden of dense thickets,

The poetry of Shabab and Al-Ghoutah’s narrators

It is unharmed by the diversity of its blooming flowers.

حسبي إذا ذكر القريض و أهله

شعر شباب الغوطتين رواته

I am an ember revived, my soul filled

It is enough for me, when poetry and its masters are mentioned,

With the ambitions of youth stirred by whims

That the youth of the two Ghoutas are the reciters of my verse.

أنا جمرة الغمرات ، ملء جوانحي

همم الشباب تثيرها نزواته

They were intoxicated as I recited the pride of my poems

I am the blazing ember of adversities; filling my ribs

For it is the purified nectar of their first sips

Are the ambitions of youth, stirred by its passionate impulses.

سكروا و قد أنشدت غرّ قصائدي

فهي الرّحيق طهورة رشفاته

They said “It is new!” I said “who are its supporters?”

They grew intoxicated when I recited my finest odes,

The pen of the wise one is its best critique

For they are a pure nectar, immaculate in every sip.

قالوا : الجديد فقلت : من أنصاره

قلم الحكيم وزقّه ودواته

In it there is coquetry, I will not say something base

They said: 'The new!' I replied: 'Among its champions

Some coyness makes beauty coyness

Are the wise man's pen, his parchment, and his inkwell.'

فيه هنات لا أقول ذميمة

بعض الملاحة في الجمال هناته

And I see the old turn its virtues

It holds minor flaws, though I do not call them blameworthy,

So they are lost between its sins and virtues

For sometimes the charm of beauty lies in its imperfections.

وأرى القديم يحول حسناته

فتضيع بين ذنوبه ، حسناته

Do not leave women unsmoothed

And I see the old, whose virtues fade away,

A nation’s spirit is the mirror of its youth

So that its merits are lost amidst its sins.

لا تتركوا المرأة غير صقيلة

الشعب روح شبابه مرآته

Do not leave the mirror unpolished;

For a nation's mirror is the spirit of its youth.