الملك عندك تستوي أقوامه — أحمد الكاشف

The realm's peoples are equal in your eyes,

and time's days have vied with one another over you.

You are the one whose peace benefited the land,

after him whose strife harmed the land.

You do not sleep the night away, intent on governing,

and without your judgment its darkness does not brighten.

How noble your kindness to your subjects, justly given,

its portions flowing among their several divisions.

You are the one whose departure revived striving,

and whose stay revived kindness and gracious justice.

Be as you wish, journeying east and west,

for the enterprise's completion is entrusted to you.

You raise the domed tents into the sky; you see them only

with its heavenly bodies among their stakes.

And your ships sailed the seas as though they were

an army of yours, its banners unfurled.

The cities and villages were honored by their builder,

and the hills of their wilderness bowed to its fierce lion.

God bless your resolve in the deserts, while you, in

the folds of darkness, are bright-faced and smiling.

If your caravan traverses their deserts unhurriedly,

the parched land prefers its raincloud to linger.

And the oases will become gardens when

steam runs through them and its system holds sway.

And surely you will populate them with a great throng,

clamorous, whose arrival and bustle delight you.

Had an intrepid warrior other than you explored them,

his feet would have left no mark in their sand.

How lovely that caravan! I was stirred to yearn for

the Bedouin age by its pale camels and its tents.

So I wished my heart were its roaming-ground,

or its dust were kohl for the eyes.

You ennobled that age, making it a source of pride

to its Bedouins, while its non-Arabs emulated them.

Tunisia and Algeria recalled the past

of every lord whose Islam adorned him,

the days when they and their neighboring lands were joined

as one by the faith of guidance and its concord;

the days when the east of your Egypt called to its west,

and its Iraq and its Syria surged within it.

And Tripoli hastened to you, for it only

greeted the most dutiful man his imam had chosen.

And it showed you affection, as its sultan did,

knowing you are his fortress and his sword.

And it welcomed you with gracious intimate words, as

one long consumed by thirst meets the rain.

Why should it not exalt your lofty rank, when

through your counsel its decrees have prevailed around it?

So you see the faces of those arriving as though they were

garden blossoms whose buds have opened.

The valley hopes for none but you, for

you alone are its zealous protector and its champion.

Worthiest of lasting well-being and health

is one whose aims are these and whose courage is such.

Your treasures testified to your vigilance, just as

the pyramids of one long gone testified to his might.

Let no ornament distract you from your striving;

palaces need only a bold man's occasional visits.

For you are Moses, save that if you admonish

the Pharaoh of your age, his sins are forgiven.

You healed him with your favor, after

his years of suffering had dragged on.

Do not try me with delay, for I am

a love-stricken man whose reproachers surround his home.

He remains thirsty; neither his singing

has brought him wealth, nor his circling.

He wore away the nights, enamored of advising

one who did not understand; his passion brought him harm.

If men lay claim to glory, it is only

in poetry that his glory's sign and his badge of honor are found.

Would you have him as poet to your new reign?

And when will his dreams become realities?

Were it not for conviction, noble pride, and zeal,

his illusions would have destroyed his hopes.

Decree for your people that everyone be brought near who

has defended the homeland; honoring him is his life.

And worthiest of honor and favor is he

whose glad tidings are these and whose inspiration is this.