أمة ٌ من رأسها منكسرة
و أمانيها عليها قَتَرة
A nation broken from the head down,
its hopes veiled in gloom.
يا أخيّا الحرفِ لا تكتبْ على
قبرها .. تخجلُ منها المقبرة
O brother of the letter, do not write upon
her grave—the cemetery would blush for shame at her.
تأنفُ الأوراقُ من سيرته
ويعاديها مدادُ المحبرة
The pages disdain her chronicle,
and the ink of the inkwell turns against her.
ما كتبنا الشعرَ إلا كي نرى
ماردا ًينفضُ عنها الغَبَرَة
We have written poetry only so that we might see
a giant shake the dust from her.
أمةٌ يُغتالُ فيها مُقعدٌ
فبدتْ سوءتها المستترة
A nation in which a disabled man is assassinated,
and so her hidden nakedness was laid bare.
كان فيها قائماً وهي التي
أقعدتها نخوةٌ منبترة
He stood upright within her, while it was she
whom a maimed sense of honor left crippled.
ما سألنا الله نصرا ً وبه
ألفُ سجان ٍ نفته المأثرة
We asked God for no victory, though through him
one feat of valor swept away a thousand jailers.
ورأتْ تاريخهُ مبتكَرا ً
ومتى تجدي الرؤى المبتكرة
She deemed his history an innovation,
but when have novel visions ever availed?
يدهُ شلتْ وكم من عنق ٍ
شامخَ الرأي عظيم المفخرة
His hand was paralyzed—and many a neck,
proud in judgment, magnificent in glory,
ليس من جرمٍ سوى في رأيه
يدهُ أهدتهُ ظلم المعصرة
whose only crime lay in its opinion,
its hand rewarded with the crushing press’s wrong.
أمة ٌ أقصى مناها أن ترى
وَهَمَ أيامٍ لها مندثرة
A nation whose highest hope is to behold
the phantom of days of hers long gone.
هرب الحسون من غاباته
وشدا البومُ بها و القبرة
The goldfinch fled its groves,
while the owl and the lark sang there.
أمةٌ تأكل من أبنائه
عظْمةَ الفكرِ ولحمَ التذكرة
A nation that devours, from its children,
the bone of thought and the flesh of memory.
لا أرها الله من سوأته
قصة ً مسهبة ًمختصرة
May God spare her the sight of her own shame—
an exhaustive story, told in brief.
هي من قرن ٍ وقرنين ومن
ألف قرنٍ للسنا منتظرة
For a century, for two centuries, and
for a thousand centuries she has awaited the light.
ما أرتنا من رؤاها عجبا ً
وارتنا الغصَّةَ المعتبرة
She has shown us no wonder among her visions,
only the chastening lump in the throat.
إنها أعجبُ مهزومٍ مضى
يرسمُ النصرَ بعطر المغفرة
She is the strangest defeated one ever to pass,
sketching victory with the perfume of forgiveness.
إنها مهزومة ٌ في عمقه
إنما ألحانها منتصرة
She is defeated in her depths;
only her songs are victorious.
آيةٌ للعُجْبِ ما تبدعهُ
من تلاوين لها مُستنكرة
A marvel indeed, what she devises
of her reprehensible changes of color.
تهدأ الأحزانُ من خيبته
وبها أفراحها مستعرة
Sorrows themselves grow calm at her disappointment,
while her celebrations blaze within her.
هذه أمةُ لا حولَ و ل
قوةٍ ندركُ حتى الآخرة
This is a nation with no might and no
strength to be found, even until the Hereafter.
إنها أمتنا يا صاحبي
إنها أمتنا المحتضَرة
It is our nation, my friend;
it is our nation in its death throes.
