ولائي كما أخلصته لك دائم — أحمد الكاشف

My allegiance, as I sincerely devoted it to you, endures;

and your rule through benevolence and justice endures.

And my love for you is love for Egypt and her people;

and it is nothing but duty, and duty is binding.

And the public tribute to you is a nation's tribute;

for you, its festivals and seasons have come together.

And the party and the club where homage is paid

to you by the party are nothing less than a state and its capitals.

And sustenance for the free men of the homeland in their struggle,

and for righteous companions, are these banquets.

From eternal al-Kawthar comes what you drink

here, and from Paradise comes what you eat.

And from these virtues a prose writer offers you

his greeting as perfume, and a poet offers you his.

You reached the hoped-for height of eminence in rule,

while serving the Lord of dominion and the king.

Through it you fulfilled a duty you owed to a state

that rose high, its pillars and supports firmly set.

In it you humbled yourself, detached, though it is coveted;

another regrets what he has missed of it.

If the parties are diverse, enough for them

and for you among them is the ready and fitting one.

And God has united hearts, so they found no

path into those hearts—those amulets.

When the supreme exemplar sees in his age

followers of his own, great trials become easy for him.

And enough for the one who shunned you yesterday is that,

despite his wrongdoing, he is safe from your reproach.

And whoever found in himself and his age no

way back to you was drawn on by noble deeds.

And one you brought close while willing is not

like one you brought close against his will.

In enmity, a fully armed foe is more honorable

to a free man than a foe who goes away reviling.

You are not haughty toward anyone you helped to victory,

nor do you gloat over anyone you defeat.

You still plunge into many different battles,

and their only spoils are hearts.

And the ordained fate, in what you have commanded,

for a battle is nothing but strength and resolve.

You showed mercy to Palestine, whose defenders will not yield,

so all the East became the object of your mercy.

And you saved her, lest her invaders be destroyed,

and her sons too, by those spears and keen swords.

And had fate not made you an intercessor for them,

her ruins and landmarks would have vanished with them.

Every enthroned ruler spoke through steel,

and each of their coal-black consciences blazed.

And on every land a fortress of it travels,

and on every sea a fortress of it floats.

And for destruction beneath humankind and above them,

earthquakes and bombardments spring from their hands.

A worldly Day of Judgment, except that its torment

on earth is met by the innocent and the sinner alike.

Kingdoms across the world have collapsed before you,

while you, among them, are the friend and the man of peace.

Each side keeps watch in its own place,

so evil is neither neglected nor allowed to worsen.

The clamorous ones' threats do not come to an end,

nor does any decisive action follow their talk.

Whenever a glad-hearted optimist calls,

the scowling, alarm-spreading pessimist replies.

No glory attends a domineering tyrant's power

when his means are his sins and crimes.

Nor, in this age of reason, can a people be driven to ruin

as grazing beasts are cast into it.

And though you have fortified your stronghold, you fear

for humankind, lest a calamity suddenly overwhelm them.

When your state rises high on earth, standing equal

there against it are the one destroyed and the destroyer.

Does a meddler come from the East or from the West,

when the ever-ready neighbor has offered friendship?

He came to you seeking favor, and his greeting was answered,

in reply to him from you, by vast armies.

They restored the reason of one maddened by the unseen,

and interpreted the vision for the dreamer.

And what he encountered while defending

was a warning of what he would encounter while attacking.

And he who sought war among humankind became, in its name,

a claimant, at times suing, at times bargaining.

He pressed for it a while; but when it took shape

before him, his shouting ceased, and he fell silent with dismay.

And the ally came forward with a pledge of protection,

opposing, under his covenant, whomever you oppose.

He began calling for the Turks in Egypt, after

a time had passed while he was censuring the Turks.

He had feared their army while it lay in wait,

but now he hopes for their army as it approaches.

He seeks refuge with them as Egypt's companions, and behind them

are Bedouin Arabs seeking her care, and non-Arabs.

No kinship brought him near to you or to them;

rather, his needs did, while he was in debt.

Those are not documents between Egypt and them,

but those hovering hearts.

The two sides vied for you in politics,

so each of the two camps is enamored of you.

You chose, with pride, your place between them,

so you are neither wronged nor unjust.

Thus might decrees, and might fills

your hands; judgment holds sway, and judgment is resolute.

Life among humankind is a throng, and within it

no contender gains strength without massive armaments.

An armored warrior and an unarmed man are not equal in it,

nor are its eagles and its doves equal.

There is no good in a kingdom unless it has

lions among its sons, and mighty birds of prey.

You have brought humankind's struggle to an end, yet

endings are only for the return of great conquests.

You prepare them, bringing what you desire to completion,

and in this you are their leader and ruler.

And for one whose words prove true, his deeds

are his narrators and interpreters to the world.

And enough for me is that I witness what you have done

for Egypt, and that I know the outcomes.