ضِعتَ بَينَ النُهى وَبَينَ الخَيالِ

يا حَكيمَ النُفوسِ يا اِبنَ المَعالي

You were placed between inhibitions and imagination

O wise soul, O son of greatness

ضِعتَ في الشَرقِ بَينَ قَومٍ هُجودٍ

لَم يُفيقوا وَأُمَّةٍ مِكسالِ

You were placed in the East among downfallen people

Who did not awaken, and a lazy nation

قَد أَذالوكَ بَينَ أُنسٍ وَكَأسٍ

وَغَرامٍ بِظَبيَةٍ أَو غَزالِ

They have humiliated you between companionship and a cup

And passion for a gazelle or a doe

وَنَسيبٍ وَمِدحَةٍ وَهِجاءٍ

وَرِثاءٍ وَفِتنَةٍ وَضَلالِ

And lineage and praise and satire

And elegy and sedition and misguidance

وَحَماسٍ أَراهُ في غَيرِ شَيءٍ

وَصَغارٍ يَجُرُّ ذَيلَ اِختِيالِ

And zeal I see it in nothing

And pettiness that trails the hem of pretense

عِشتَ ما بَينَهُم مُذالاً مُضاعاً

وَكَذا كُنتَ في العُصورِ الخَوالي

You have lived among them disgraced and lost

And so you were in past eras

حَمَّلوكَ العَناءَ مِن حُبِّ لَيلى

وَسُلَيمى وَوَقفَةِ الأَطلالِ

They burdened you with sorrow from the love of Layla

And Sulayma and the ruins of encampments

وَبُكاءٍ عَلى عَزيزٍ تَوَلّى

وَرُسومٍ راحَت بِهِنَّ اللَيالي

And crying over a dear one who turned away

And customs that have been taken by the nights

وَإِذا ما سَمَوا بِقَدرِكَ يَوماً

أَسكَنوكَ الرِحالَ فَوقَ الجِمالِ

And if one day they elevate your worth

They house you atop camels to settle

آنَ يا شِعرُ أَن نَفُكَّ قُيوداً

قَيَّدَتنا بِها دُعاةُ المُحالِ

Now, O poetry, it is time to undo shackles

With which the advocates of the impossible have fettered us

فَاِرفَعوا هَذِهِ الكَمائِمِ عَنّا

وَدَعونا نَشُمُّ ريحَ الشَمالِ

So lift these veils from us

And let us smell the wind of the north