دار العلى والعلم أنت مديرها

يا نور سوريا وأنت مشيرها

The house of eminence and learning—you are its director.

O light of Syria, and you are its counselor.

سعدت مدارسها بطلعتك التي

هي نورها وسرورها وحبورها

Its schools rejoiced at your appearance, which

is their light, their joy, and their gladness.

وزهت فراديس العلوم وغردت

فيها بلابلها وطاب عبيرها

And the paradises of learning blossomed, and song arose

within them from their nightingales, and their fragrance grew sweet.

طوقتها طوق السعادة والصفا

فزها وتاه كبيرها وصغيرها

You adorned them with the necklace of happiness and serenity,

so their great and small flourished and took pride.

وأنا الحقير زهت بيوت قصائدي

ببهاء حمدك واستنار أثيرها

And I, the lowly one—my poems' verses blossomed

with the splendor of praising you, and their ether shone.

ولقد علمت بأن علمك خضرم

وحصون حلمك لا يطاول سورها

And I know full well that your knowledge is a vast ocean,

and none can rival the walls of your forbearance's fortresses.

فاعذر على فرط القصور قريحةً

لم تحو إلّا ما رأيت قصورها

So pardon, for its utter inadequacy, a poetic gift

that has held only the shortcomings you have seen in it.

لكنها صارت بمدحك جنةً

ولدانها حسن الثناء وحورها

Yet through praising you it has become a paradise,

whose youths and houris are the beauty of praise.

فاسلم لأنواع الفضائل روضةً

آصالها فياحة وبكورها

So live in safety, a garden for every kind of virtue,

whose late afternoons and early mornings are fragrant.

فيك استنارت بالعلوم بلادنا

وبك استقامت كالسراط أمورها

Through you, our land shone with learning,

and through you its affairs were set straight, like the straight path.