وطنَ النجومِ: أنا هُنا

حدّقْ، أتذكرُ مَن أنا؟

Homeland of stars: I am here

Land of the stars: I am here,

Look, do you remember who I am?

Gaze closely; do you remember who I am?

أَلَمَحتَ في الماضي البعيدِ

فتىً غريرًا أرعنا؟

You glimpsed in the distant past

Did you glimpse, in the distant past,

A merry, impetuous lad?

A naive and reckless boy?

جذلانَ يَمرحُ في حقولِكَ

كالنسيمِ مُدندنا

Jadlan playing in your fields

Joyful, frolicking within your fields,

Like a murmuring breeze

Humming like the breeze,

المُقتَني المملوكُ ملعبُه

وغيرُ المقتَنَى!

Owned yet owning his playground

Making the owned property his playground,

And unlike the unpossessed!

And the unowned land as well!

يتسلّقُ الأشجارَ لا ضَجَرا

يُحسُّ ولا وَنَى

Climbing trees not out of boredom

Climbing the trees, feeling no boredom,

Feeling, lacking no joy

Feeling neither fatigue nor weakness,

ويعودُ بالأغصانِ يَبريها

سيوفًا أو قَنا

And returning with branches to make

Returning with branches, whittling them

Swords or spears for fun

Into swords or spears,

ويَخوضُ في وحلِ الشّتا

مُتهلّلا مُتيمّنا

And wading in winter mud

Wading through the mud of winter,

Joyous, auspicious

Rejoicing, taking it as a good omen,

لا يتّقي شرَّ العيونِ

ولا يخافُ الألسنا

Fearing not the evil of eyes

Heeding not the evil of watching eyes,

Nor dreading gossip

Nor fearing the wagging tongues,

ولَكَمْ تَشيطنَ كي يَقولَ

الناسُ عنه "تشيطنا"

And how often you wished he’d say

And how often he played the devil just so

“He’s naughty,” people would tell

People would say of him: "He has turned into a devil."

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أنا ذلكَ الولدُ الذي

دُنياه كانت ههنا!

I’m that boy whose

I am that very boy whose

World was here!

Whole world was right here!

أنا مَن مياهِكَ قطرةٌ

فاضتْ جداولَ مِن سَنا

I’m a raindrop of your waters

I am a drop of your waters

That overflowed brooks from the springhead

That overflowed as streams of radiance,

أنا مِن ترابِكَ ذرّةٌ

ماجَتْ مواكبَ مِن مُنَى

I’m a speck of your soil

I am a speck of your soil

That stirred processions from Mina

That surged as processions of hopes,

أنا مِن طيورِكَ بلبلٌ

غنّى بمجدِكَ فاغتنى

I’m a nightingale of your birds

I am a nightingale among your birds

That sang your glory and thrived

Who sang of your glory and thus grew rich,

حَمَلَ الطّلاقةَ والبشاشةَ

مِن ربوعِكَ للدُّنى

Imbibing from your valleys

He carried eloquence and cheer

Vivacity and cheer for life

From your dwellings to the entire world.

كم عانقَتْ رُوحي رُباكَ

وصفّقتْ في المُنحنى؟

How often my soul embraced your hills

How often my soul embraced your hills

And clapped in the valley?

And clapped within the winding slopes?

للأَرْزِ يَهزأُ بالرياحِ

وبالدهورِ وبالفَنا

To the cedar mocking the winds

For the Cedars that mock the winds,

And time and demise

And the ages, and annihilation,

للبحرِ يَنشرُهُ بُنوكَ

حضارةٍ وتمدّنا

To the sea where your children spread

For the sea, which your sons spread abroad

Civilization and urbanity

As civilization and urbanity,

لليلِ فيكَ مُصلّيا،

للصبحِ فيكَ مُؤذِّنا

To the night praying in you

For the night within you, praying,

To the dawn making call to prayer in you

For the morning within you, calling to prayer,

للشمسِ تُبطئُ في وداعِ

ذُراكَ كيلا تَحزنا

To the sun slowing in farewell

For the sun, lingering in its farewell

Of your lands, lest it sadden them

To your peaks, so they do not grieve,

للبدرِ في نَيسانَ كحّلَ

بالضّياءِ الأعينا

To the moon in April whose kohl

For the full moon in April that lined

Adorned the eyes with radiance

The eyes with light like kohl,

فيذوبُ في حَدَقِ المَهَا

سِحرًا لطيفًا ليّنا

Melting into the gaze of the bubbly wine

Melting into the pupils of the oryx

A subtle, tender sorcery

As a gentle, soft magic,

للحقلِ يرتجلُ الرّوائعَ

زَنبقا أو سوسنا

To the field where your poetry sprung

For the field improvising masterpieces,

Anemones or lilies

Of lilies or irises,

للعشبِ أثقلَه النّدى ،

للغُصنِ أثقلَه الجَنَى

To the grass heavy with dew

For the grass weighed down by dew,

To the branch heavy with fruit

For the branch weighed down by fruit,

عاشَ الجمالُ مشرّدًا

في الأرضِ يَنشُدُ مسكنا

Beauty lived homeless

Beauty lived as a homeless wanderer

On earth seeking refuge

Upon the earth, seeking a dwelling,

حتّى انكشفتَ له فألقى

رحلَه وتوطّنا

Until you were revealed and it cast

Until you were revealed to it, so it cast down

Its load and settled

Its burden and settled in,

واستعرضَ الفنُّ الجبالَ

فكنتَ أنتَ الأحسنا

And art reviewed the mountains

And Art reviewed the mountains,

But you were the finest

And you were the most beautiful,

لله سرٌّ فيكَ، يا

لِبنانُ،لم يُعلنْ لنا

God has in you a secret, O

God has a secret in you, O

Lebanon, unrevealed to us

Lebanon, that has not been revealed to us.

زعموا سلوتُكَ.. ليتَهم

نسبوا إليّ المُمكنا

They claimed your gloom...If only

They claimed I had forgotten you... Would that they had

They ascribed the possible to me

Attributed to me something possible,

فالمرءُ قد ينسى المُسيءَ

المفترَى ، والمُحسنا

For one may forget those who wronged

For a man may forget the offender,

And maligned, and who did good

The slanderer, and the benefactor,

واللهوَ، والحسناءَ، والوترَ

المُرنّحَ، والغِنا

And play, and beauty, and the poignant melody,

And amusement, and the beauty, and the string

and song

That sways the spirit, and the song,

ومرارةَ الفقرِ المذلِّ،

بل ولذّاتِ الغِنى

And the bitterness of humiliating poverty,

And the bitterness of humiliating poverty,

Even the pleasures of wealth

Nay, even the pleasures of wealth,

لكنّه مهما سلا

هيهاتَ يسلو الموطنا

But however much one wanders

But no matter how much he forgets,

Never will one forget the homeland

Far be it that he forgets the homeland.