ملك كما ترضى وعدل قائم — أحمد الكاشف

A kingship as you would have it, and justice standing firm;

from you comes generosity, and to you enduring loyalty.

Your kin have your confidence, though you dwell among them as a guest;

and Egypt has the tidings borne by the herald who comes.

O successor to the Sultan, since you both are joined

in God, with festivals and sacred seasons in His honor.

Whoever seeks to wrong you, while you hold

this high station, is surely a guilty aggressor.

He who reviewed the armies, seasoned in command, is most worthy

to be redeemed—for he is one who prays and fasts.

In Ramadan, amid their dwellings, you revived—

by God—Hashim’s legacy in Mecca.

And banquets for Egypt’s defenders, as though

news of them were feasts for Egypt’s needy.

The manifestations of religion are virtue and guidance;

the manifestations of this world are bounty and noble deeds.

And in their counsels you left that mark

which the prudent adviser commended.

More fitting for you is the fortress you reinforced,

even though cities and capitals long for you.

Within it you have troops: if you will, they are lions

filling the land; and if you will, mighty vultures.

They said, “He is ill.” I said, “He is exhausted by what

neither Arabs nor non-Arabs can accomplish.”

The one who encompassed the land is most entitled

to remain for it, sound and unharmed.

Go your way, bringing contentment to every eye,

and dwell in hearts that, when you returned, hovered around you.

Your train followed you—a palace in motion—

after the ship, itself a floating mountain.

It is explanation enough for humankind of what you experienced that

you receive their delegations with a smile upon your lips.

You entrusted the judgments to the noblest men around you,

honorable men cooperating in righteousness:

Egypt’s ministers and proclaimers of her proof,

should a tyrant stray and a resentful man persist in arrogance.

They proceeded deliberately and rightly guided, and attained

what the frantic, wandering man cannot attain.

And behold: the weak complainant is satisfied

with them—so the powerful assailant has grown angry.

O son of those who built Egypt’s polity

when the East was chaos and its people wandering herds,

they entrusted Egypt’s cause to you; and through you

her ancient glory shall be restored.

She charges you to honor the appointed date—it is an obligation,

an immortal memorial to them, and enduring landmarks.

The people are guests, whether they keep their word or break it;

and honoring guests is an inescapable duty.

If you wish, Egypt is for them a spacious field;

or, if you wish, the tight and crushing pass.

Let them surrender the country’s rule to its own people;

they shall still have abundant drink and food.

And if they fear for us some approaching danger,

with what edifice can that onslaught be repelled?

With leaders, when each abandons the other?

With brotherhood, when each defeats the other?

With demands that other demands sweep away,

and resolves assassinated by opposing resolves?

Let them do the good deed for which they will be remembered

after the evacuation—even by the pessimistic company.

And let them leave us to build in the two countries whatever

we wish; none shall demolish what we have built.

The free, proud man may do for himself

what the hired servant cannot do.

Since our deliverance has come into your hands, it is prudent

that you watch them closely while remaining peaceful.

The methods you have mastered

are blessed pathways and stairways.

By God, your judgment attains and bestows

what spears and swords do not even attempt.

This is but part of the strength you have prepared

against an age grown terrifying and dire.

If free men could show your patience even once,

no critic would blame them for what they desired.

An innocent man may perhaps be accused, while plots

and slanders drive his friend away from him.

If the complainant falls silent before you, it is in obedience

to you—not the silence of one resentful and grim.

Let no impatient outcry anger you over

what you intend to do and what its maker merely alleges.

What blame rests on the yearning lover when he is stirred

toward his beloved by the lightning he watches?

If the gentle people know your most—

exalted right, then you truly know your people’s right.

Certainty has come, leaving no room for what

a doubter alleged or a deluded man imagined.

Whoever commands clear and eloquent speech

does not fear armies, though they surge like seas.

The proud and astute acknowledged his right;

among the astute, the willing and unwilling are alike.

When truth is insistently championed by its advocates,

supporter and opponent benefit from it alike.

When the proud man’s soul rises, its worth grows dear: there is no

hired bidder or bargainer for his pride.

The people have chosen peace as a path to the heights,

while the causes that drive nations to conflict are crimes.

Their nature grew gentle, like the smooth flow of their Nile,

and they endure the days, though the days impose heavy costs.

No aggressor ever gained freedom through harm

anywhere beneath the two horizons, nor did a sinner win independence.

I see contending powers driven

blindly toward a distant end by rancors:

states which, if they wage war, leave you secure,

and, if they join together, leave you the winner.

Time conceals some event, and I fear that

what it conceals will overtake the states.

And rebels have lived upon resentment, as

scorpions scurry and deadly snakes creep.

They grew accustomed to crooked, thorny ravines, just as

they grew accustomed to raging, poison-laden winds.

Vile are gardens irrigated with blood,

and dwellings whose stones are skulls.

Would that your grandfather had left none of their snarling rebels,

and that no merciful man had spared the Peninsula.

Egypt’s parties, if you consent, are a necklace

of diverse jewels, and you are the one who strings them.

The Nile flows smoothly before your hands,

and life in your age is prosperous and pleasant.

Could any hand one day shake your lofty throne

when the hearts of the loyal are its pillars?

Egypt does not tremble, nor are her supporters

oppressed, nor is the Caliph asleep.

This is the secure land, whenever

earthquakes and calamities strike other lands.

You may be as you please; it is enough for her

that no ruler but you govern the realm.