منْ تنادي قدْسُنا منْ تنادي

من يداوي جُرحَها بالْفِعال ِ

Who do you call, our holy city, who do you call

Who will heal her wounds with deeds

أحبيبٌ قدْ غدا في انشغالِ

أم زَنيمٌ في جفاهُ يُغالي

A lover who has become preoccupied

Or a boasting enemy in his defiance

هؤلاء اخوَةٌ قدْ تجافَوْا

وطغى اشرارُهمْ في اخْتيالِ

These are brothers who have become estranged

And their evil has prevailed through guile

نذَرُوا انْفُسَهم للغريبِ

واستباحوا عِرضَهمْ باقتتالِ

They have devoted themselves to the foreigner

And violated their honor through fighting

والاحبُّ بينهم كذّبُوه

وارْتأوه جامحاً في ضلالِ

The most beloved among them they called a liar

And saw him as raging in misguidance

وَاخرُونَ سُبَّةٌ ما اسْتجابوا

أوْ تنادوْا في زَمانِ الوصالِ

While others, captives, did not respond

Or summon in the time of reunion

كَمْ غفرتِ صمْتَهم ثمّ قلتِ

عَلَّهُ صمتُ رؤوسِ الجبالِ

How often did your silence pardon them, then you said

Perhaps it is the silence of mountain peaks

عاجلاً أو اجلاً ستهبُّ

مِنْ ثناياهُ رياحُ الشمالِ

Sooner or later, the winds of the north

Will blow from within them

فاذا بالصّمتِ ليسَ سوى جُحْ

رِ منايا بانتظارِ الغزالِ

Then silence is nothing but the stench

Of grievances waiting for the gazelles

مَنْ تنادي قدْسُنا منْ تنادي

منْ لهذا الأصفرَ بالنّعالِ

Who do you call, our holy city, who do you call

For this yellow one in slippers

أمْ فِداها قوْلُنا اذْ بهِ لا

بسواه تُسْتباحُ المَعالي

Or did our words ransom it, for by them

Only are sublime things violated

ويْلَهُ من يائنا انْ تَجلَّتْ

في دُعاءٍ أوْ عَلتْ في جدالِ!

Woe to us if we faltered

In prayer or rose up in dispute

ويْلَهُ من شعرنا والطبولِ

أنْ يُدقُّ رقُّها بانْهيالِ!

Woe to our poetry and drums

If their beating flows wantonly

ويحَ قومٍ ما أجادوا سوى قرْ

ع الطبولِ اذْ تنادي الغوَالي

Woe to a people who have mastered nothing

But beating drums when death calls

من تنادي قدسُنا من تنادي

والزّمانُ ما خلا منْ رجالِ

Who do you call, our holy city, who do you call

While time is not without men

أتنادي خالداً امْ صلاحاً

والزّمانُ عينُه للزّوالِ

Do you call Khaled or Salah

While time's eye is set on decline

هذه أُمّتكِ قد أناخ

الذلُّ والبؤسُ بها باعْتلالِ

This is your nation where

Humiliation and misery have settled

أُمّةٌ قد سَلّمتْ بالوعودِ

ويْ لها إنْ بُغِتتْ بالنزالِ

A nation that surrendered to promises

Woe to it if it is tested in battle

أمّةٌ لمَّا تزلْ ترتئي كلّ

جمالٍ في حدودِ الخيالِ

A nation that has not ceased coveting

Every beauty within the realm of imagination

وجمالُ قدْسنا لا يدانيـ

ـهِ خيالٌ، كالْجِنانِ العوَالي

And the beauty of our holy city cannot be equaled

By any imagination, like the lofty gardens