قضية مصر في هذا المكان — أحمد الكاشف

Egypt's cause is here, in this place,

And the matter's outcome is at this hour.

And God's day is your day, beheld by

Delegations of the realm, from far and near.

The melodies of the two festivals met in it,

And the hour has come for the two faithful promise-givers.

The valley performed its rites in the morning,

And came to you at midmorning with congratulations.

And the people circled round, gathered by an orator

Of sound judgment and trusted speech.

Its impact touched, within every soul,

The seat of generosity and hopes.

And strengthened what you built upon innate virtues,

And toppled those who would topple every builder.

And it was a warning to a faction flung

By its passions after the great serpent.

That force has its hour when necessity demands,

But noble admonition belongs to every moment.

And the hand may be dispensed with, though it is a duty

Upon humankind, through the influence of the tongue.

Leader of the devoted, you chose companions

Who led the caravan along paths of safety.

They seek the outcome as they wished it,

And in what they planned lies full assurance.

So what ails the rebels against you, who have returned

As routed bands before the contest's appointed time?

You left them, yet they did not abandon disputation

In your wake, in truth and in plain sight.

For they conceal what you exposed of them,

And lament their lost advantages in song.

And they wander without a guide [apparently intended; literally, the text reads “a guide's lands”],

And they speak without meaning.

Have their plots, then, found no way forward,

Now that they have fled the oft-renewed war?

If they endure what you decree

Against them, it is a coward's submission.

And what ails their leader, who still among them

Goes to prayer with a festive procession?

And he does not know whether it is for glory that, proudly,

He struts with a procession, or for disgrace.

Obstinacy harmed him, and through it he became

Sick in mind, hand, and heart.

So his morning outings are not those of humans,

Nor his evening outings those of jinn.

I supported you willingly, O minister of the people,

And to the people belong my artistry and devotion.

And I followed what pleased and enriched

Your land, among your noble achievements.

And it is enough for you that, in every matter,

I endure in your struggle what you endure.

And I have, in all that I hope for and you hope for,

A certainty filling my soul and time itself.

And the one who wrongs me, even if he persists,

Has a share of my forbearance and tenderness.