في الحلم أم في سكرة أتخيل — أحمد الكاشف

Is it in a dream or a drunken daze that I imagine

what you propose to one who hopes?

Even if I became a naive child again, I would not believe

that I myself would grow wealthy tomorrow.

Experience has kept testing me until

I have come to fear the very thing with which I console myself.

The hurt of my yesterday and today warns me

against expecting safety in what awaits me.

Time, which flings us about, bit me one morning,

so I learned what I had not known the evening before.

And excruciating illness tormented me one night,

a night that gave me the character I am perfecting.

Were it not for my feelings, I would live my life calmly;

the world would quake, yet I would not quake.

Nor would I melt my heart into a poem

in summer, offering it to one who cannot understand.

And I would be content with a life below subsistence, were it

not that I am burdened with other people's concerns.

Is a wise, impoverished man obeyed among my people,

even if he is a prophet sent into their midst?

If the days dealt fairly, I would be made an arbiter,

judging as a despot judges and settling disputes.

What a waste of lovely, radiant virtues, if

no gathering brings me together with the caliph!

The poor man hopes for wealth and vows to give it away,

in a show of nobility; but once rich, he gives nothing.

None truly feels the virtue of giving and

benevolence except the destitute man who knows hardship.

Indeed, he who has given the country his tears

and his blood will not begrudge his gold.

If comfort makes me forget brotherhood, then my poverty

is preferable, even if the pickaxe bloodies my hands.

And even if I possessed Qarun's wealth, I would not

heal the anguish that spreads deep within my breast.

If I had the wealth of Rockefeller, whom

you mean, I would do for Egypt what he does not do.

And I would build five battleships for the sultan,

aboard which the army would strut amid my bounty.

And I would unfurl the banners of steam throughout his realm;

through it the distant would draw near, and the neglected grow valuable.

And I would extend the Tigris and Euphrates so they might water

that thirsty soil, and barren ground would sprout grass.

And I would buy fertile land in Sudan,

with which I would sustain and employ those seeking a livelihood.

And I would race the companies toward their goals

until first place was mine.

And I would give a thousand to each member of

my kin, ensuring and guaranteeing his goodwill toward me.

And I would build a hospital, a school, and

a garden in my village, which is the finest.

And I would journey through the wide earth, roaming

its regions, moved to tears as I ponder.

And I would raise a palace for myself on the Bosphorus, to

summer there as a poet, writing love verse.

And I would provide poets with a good livelihood

that protects the most sensitive of people from abasing themselves.

And I would gather them for a daily newspaper

that reports the truth to the people and conveys it.

And whenever someone in distress came seeking a loan,

I would lend to him, and praise would be my richest profit.

A kindness—reward enough for it is to see

someone enjoying comfort and joy, in whom it is embodied.

Indeed, the country and its people are in my hand, if

my hand embraces the sons of my country.