1. أما لقربك بعد الهجر ميعاد

    فالدار في وحشة والصحب ارصاد

    Is there no appointed time to be near you after estrangement?

    For the home is lonely, and the companions keep watch.

  2. كم في الحمى من فؤاد فيك مشتغل

    وكم تحن إلى مرآك اكباد

    How many hearts in these precincts are preoccupied with you,

    And how many livers yearn to behold you!

  3. إن يحسب الجاهلون اليوم يومهم

    فالعقل فينا له رهط واجناد

    If the ignorant reckon today their day,

    Then reason has a band and armies among us.

  4. ادولة دولة الأغرار قد نهضوا

    إلى المناصب والاكفاء اشهاد

    Is this rule the rule of simpletons? They have risen

    To offices, while the capable stand as witnesses.

  5. ترشحوا للمعالي وهي راغبة

    عن مثلهم ولها في الحي آساد

    They put themselves forward for lofty rank, though it turns away

    From their like, and has lions within the community.

  6. تزينوا قبل تعنيب ومثلهم

    إلى الفضيحة بين الناس ينقاد

    They adorned themselves before rebuke, and their like

    Is led to disgrace among the people.

  7. بأي فضل وعلم بارز نجبت

    لديك شرذمة للجهل ترتاد

    By what merit and outstanding learning has distinction been won

    In your eyes by a rabble that seeks out ignorance?

  8. أذاك ما نرتجيه اليوم من سبق

    وهل بامثالها للسبق امداد

    Is that the lead we hope for today?

    And can the likes of it provide aid in taking the lead?

  9. ان كان قد غرها منا السكوت فما

    في الصمت جبن ولا عجز وإخلاد

    If our silence has deceived it, there is no

    Cowardice in silence, nor helplessness or passivity.

  10. أو كنت تبغي لنا بين الورى سببا

    للعار فالقوم أحرار وأمجاد

    Or if you seek for us, among mankind, some cause

    Of disgrace, then these people are freeborn and noble.

  11. لهم لسان جير بالحقيقة لا

    يخيفه في مقال الصدق حساد

    They have a tongue—indeed—which in truth is not

    Frightened by the envious when it speaks the truth.

  12. تروم للحكم قوما لا تغرهم

    إلى المناصب اطماع وارفاد

    You seek as rulers men who are not lured

    To office by greedy ambitions and gifts.

  13. نروم للحكم قوما ليس يرهبهم

    في جانب الحق ابراق وارعاد

    We seek as rulers men who are not frightened

    On truth's side by lightning and thunder.

  14. نروم قوما لهم علم ومنزلة

    فينا وركن لأوطان وانجاد

    We seek men who have learning and standing

    Among us, and give homelands a bulwark and aid.

  15. أنعمة ان يكون الحكم في يدنا

    والجهل قاض ورب المكر جلاد

    Is it a blessing that rule should be in our hands

    While ignorance is judge and the master of guile an executioner?

  16. ما ضرنا ان يكون الجار حاكمنا

    والعلم والعدل انصار واعضاد

    What harm is it to us if our neighbor rules us,

    While learning and justice are allies and supports?

  17. أنا بنوا أثلة في شتنا ضعة

    وفي تجمعنا نجح واسعاد

    We are sons of one tamarisk; in our dispersal lies abasement,

    And in our union lie success and happiness.

  18. أبعد غربة دهر لا يقال لمن

    قد غاب أهلا بمن غابوا ومن عادوا

    After an age of exile, is it not said to those

    Who were absent, 'Welcome to those who were away and those who returned'?

  19. عاودتنا بلواء الافك تنشره

    وكل سعيك تفريق وافساد

    You revisited us with a banner of falsehood, unfurling it,

    And all your striving is division and corruption.

  20. ما فرق الترك فيما بيننا وهم

    لم يدعوا نسبا للعرب ينقاد

    The Turks did not divide us, though they

    Claimed no lineage leading back to the Arabs.

  21. حاشا لقومي أن يرضوا بتفرقة

    وبينهم رب تمييز ونقاد

    Far be it from my people to accept division,

    While among them are masters of discernment and critics.

  22. إن الألى فرق الحدثان شملهم

    من بعد دهر إلى أقوامهم عادوا

    Indeed, those whose ranks the vicissitudes of time scattered

    Have returned, after an age, to their peoples.

  23. هذي البلاد وذي بعض الصقالب قد

    عادت لشمل له في الأرض أعياد

    These lands, and these—some of the Slavs—have indeed

    Returned to a union celebrated with festivals throughout the earth.

  24. انظر إلى القوم أهل الحزم من بذلوا

    نفوسهم كيف بالاجماع قد سادوا

    Look at the people of resolve, who gave

    Their lives—how, through unanimity, they have prevailed!

  25. من بعد خمسين عاما منهم اغتصبت

    أرض إلى ردها بالنفس قد جادوا

    Fifty years after it had been seized from them,

    They freely gave their lives to reclaim that land.

  26. وهم لقد عرفونا أمة نشطت

    إلى الفلاح وقوما للعلى شادوا

    And they have indeed known us as a nation that roused itself

    Toward prosperity, and a people who built for greatness.

  27. فهل ونحن ضعاف ريشنا خضل

    يجوز عندك تفريق وابعاد

    So, while we are weak, our feathers drenched,

    Are division and exclusion acceptable in your eyes?

  28. والأرض خاوية والدار قاصية

    وليس في رحلنا مال ولا زاد

    While the land is empty and the home far away,

    And there is neither money nor provision in our baggage.

  29. أنبلغ النجح والأقوام يجمعها

    شمل وصحبك بالتفكيك قد نادوا

    Shall we attain success while the peoples are gathered

    In unity, while your companions have called for fragmentation?

  30. إنا نحن إلى شمل يكون به

    إلى المعالي بنا نهج وإصعاد

    Indeed, we yearn for a union through which there will be

    A path and ascent for us toward the heights.

  31. وكل أرض لها مال تعيش به

    وكلنا بسوى العرفان زهاد

    And every land has wealth on which it lives,

    And we are all ascetics in everything but knowledge.

  32. إني اضن بقومي كيفما فعلوا

    من أن يفرقهم غل واحقاد

    I hold my people too dear, whatever they do,

    To let rancor and grudges divide them.