سلوا الأمير وروحي للأميرِ فدى

هل رادَ في الغرب مثلَ النيلِ أو بردى

Ask the Prince—my soul is a ransom for the Prince—

Has he explored in the West anything like the Nile or Barada?

وهل رأى كسماء الشرق ناصعةً

من الرقيع أظلت مثله بلدا

And has he seen a sky as radiant as the East's,

Among heaven's vaults, sheltering a land like it?

وابصر الجدول الصافي تعانقه

فيحٌ إذا تمتريها درتِ الشهدا

And has he beheld the clear stream embraced

By broad meadows that yield honey when you milk them?

وهل الم بآثارٍ تحدثه

بمثلِ مجدٍ لهذا الشرق قد وئدا

And has he come upon relics that tell him

Of a glory like this East's, buried alive?

فمصر أهرامها عنه مخبرةٌ

وبعلبك عليه شاهدٌ أبدا

For Egypt's pyramids tell of it,

And Baalbek bears witness to it forever.

مجدٌ طوى عرشه الدهر العني وما

تمكن الدهر ان يطوي له عمدا

A glory whose throne harsh Time folded away, yet

Time could not fold away its pillars.

مدت إليه الليالي كف سارقةٍ

مضت به ثم مدت للعطاء يدا

The nights stretched toward it a thief's palm,

Carried it off, then stretched out a hand to give,

فأفرغتها على الغرب السعيد ولو

لم ينحل الغرب مجد الشرق ما سعدا

And emptied it upon the fortunate West; had

The West not been given the East's glory, it would not have prospered.

فذاك يزداد من ايامه نعماً

والشرق يزداد من أيامه نكدا

Thus that one gains ever more blessings from its days,

While the East gains ever more misery from its days.

تغشى المطامع أسراباً مراتعه

كما رأيت على المخضلة الجردا

Greedy ambitions flock over its pastures,

As you have seen sleek horses upon dew-soaked land.

غرثى فلا أشبعت أرزاقه نهماً

بها ولا ابتل منها بالخضم صدى

Famished—may its bounty never sate a ravenous soul

With it, nor may its vast sea moisten a thirsty one.

يقظى ونحن نيام ليس يوقظنا

جلاد مرهفةٍ فينا وطعنُ مدى

They are wakeful while we sleep; we are not roused

By blows of sharpened blades upon us, or thrusts of knives.

يستأسدُ الضب من جيراننا طمعاً

فيستهين بليثٍ يسدل اللبدا

The lizard among our neighbors plays the lion out of greed,

And so scorns a lion that lets its matted mane hang down.

حتى البغاث غدا مستنسراً فمشى

يروعُ النسر في واديه منفردا

Even the feeble birds have become eagle-bold and go

Terrifying the eagle, alone in its own valley.

تشاكسٌ فل من بأس النسور لدى

جيش البغاث يخوض الحرب متحدا

Discord has blunted the eagles' strength before

An army of weak birds waging war united.

فما لوى الشرق عن ايام بهجته

إلا تخاذل أسيادٍ له حسدا

Nothing turned the East away from its days of joy

But its lords' jealous failure to support one another.

لولا بقية آمال ببعضهم

مثل الأمير لعافت روحه الجسدا

Were it not for some hope still left in certain of them,

Such as the Prince, its soul would have spurned its body.

سليل من ضربوا من مجدهم طنباً

في مصر دقوا بلبنانٍ له وتدا

Descendant of those who stretched a tent-rope of their glory

In Egypt, and drove its stake into Lebanon.

مهندٌ من سيوفِ العلم ما ضربت

به دجى الريب إلا راعهن هدى

An Indian-forged sword among learning's blades; never has it struck

The glooms of doubt without guidance filling them with fear.

في جنبِ عباس معقودُ النجادِ وكم

قد قطعت كفَّ عباسٍ به العقدا

Girt at Abbas's side—and how often

Has Abbas's hand cut through knots with it!

نضته للغرب اخلاق تكلفه

ان لا يظلَّ بوادي النيل منغمدا

His character drew it forth toward the West, obliging him

Not to remain sheathed in the Nile Valley.

فأكبر الغربُ عضباً مصر تصلته

على الزمانِ إذا ريبُ الزمان عدا

The West therefore admired a keen blade that Egypt brandishes

Against Time, whenever Time's calamities assail.

وزورة لربوع الشام راح لها

محمدٌ مثلما راح الندى وغدا

And a visit to the lands of al-Sham, for which set forth

Muhammad, as dew comes at dusk and dawn.

جلت بها يده سفراً إذا نظرت

عين الحسود به لم تأمن الرمدا

His hand unveiled through it a book; if it is seen

By an envious eye, that eye is not safe from inflammation.

يدٌ تجودُ بدرِّ اللفظِ كاتبةً

كما تجودُ بصرف الدرِّ عند جدا

A hand that lavishes pearls of speech when writing,

As it lavishes pure pearls when giving.

شهادةٌ بعلاءِ الشام كافيةٌ

من خطها وكفانا قدرُ من شهدا

A sufficient testimony to al-Sham's eminence,

From the one who penned it; the witness's stature suffices us.

توسم الشرق منها ان يُفارق اخ

لاق الثياب ليكسى بعدها الجددا

The East discerned in it a sign that it would cast off worn-out

Clothes, to be clad afterward in new ones.

فالشرق من أُمراهُ كان في صببٍ

والشرق من أمراه يأمل الصعدا

For through its princes the East had been on a downward slope,

And through its princes the East hopes to ascend.

ووقفةٍ في ربى كولومبَ قام بها

محمدٌ يكتسي من مجدها بُردا

And a stand upon the hills of Colomb, taken by

Muhammad, clothing himself in mantles of its glory.

يحفه من جوالي الشامُ منتظمٌ

لو خف لم يبغِ جيدٌ غيرهُ عقدا

An ordered string of al-Sham's emigrants surrounds him,

Were it light, no neck would seek another necklace.

فكان افخر من في قومهم فخروا

وكان امجدَ من في شأنه مجدا

So he was the proudest of those who took pride in their people,

And the most glorious of those who attained glory in his station.

حنا على الشام حتى زارَ هاجره

إن الحبيب مزور اينما وجدا

He bent kindly toward al-Sham, even visiting its emigrants;

For the beloved is visited wherever he is found.

عطف يعز به الشامي مقتربا

كما يعز به الشامي مبتعدا

A kindness that honors the Syrian near at hand,

As it honors the Syrian far away.

فقد رأى منه في مصر له سنداً

وفي سوى مصر منه قد رأى سندا

For in Egypt he has found in him a support,

And outside Egypt he has also found in him a support.

وما الشآم وما مصر سوى وطن

فرد من الشرق في آياته انفردا

Al-Sham and Egypt are nothing but a homeland,

One land of the East, unmatched in its wonders.

صنوان ما بت ريب الدهر بينهما

حبلاً على الحب قبل الدهر قد عقدا

Two shoots of one root: Time's calamities have never severed between them

A cord they had tied in love before Time itself.

تغشى سفوحهما غيد الظباء وقد

جرت على إثرها إخوانها الأسدا

Graceful gazelles cover their slopes, and have

Drawn their brother lions in their wake.

كان كل مهاةٍ أنعلت كبداً

فأثرت في خطاها رسمه الكمدا

As though every oryx had made a liver her sandal,

And imprinted in her footsteps its sorrowful outline.

يحفها إخوة ما نال عرضهم

عيب ولا زندهم في حادث صلدا

Brothers surround her, whose honor no

Blemish has touched, whose fire-stick never fails in a crisis.

من معشرٍ ترخص الأرواح عندهم

دون الإباء فلا تجفو عناق ردى

Of a people for whom lives are cheap

Beside unbowed pride, and do not shun death's embrace.

تاللَه ما أتأمت مصر وجارتها

الشآم غلا مهاة الانس والأسدا

By God, no twins have been borne by Egypt and her neighbor,

Al-Sham, save the human oryx and the lion.

وادي القرافة كم حيتك عاطفةٌ

من صدر لبنان تزجي الشوق متقدا

O valley of al-Qarafa, how often has affection greeted you

From Lebanon's breast, sending forth a blazing longing!

وكم تصبت سيوفاً فيك لامعةً

قد فارقت في ربى لبنانها الغمدا

And how often has that affection captivated swords gleaming within you,

That had left their sheaths on the hills of their Lebanon.

في ذمة النيل إخوانٌ لنا ادرعت

صدورهم من رضى عباسه زردا

In the Nile's safekeeping are brothers of ours, armored

Across their breasts with mail of its Abbas's favor.

ترعاهم لأخي العباس ناظرةٌ

يقظى ولو كلفت من أجلهم سهدا

The eye of Abbas's brother watches over them,

Wakeful, even if for their sake it must endure sleeplessness.

لا عاش في الشام من تغلو الحياة له

إذا محمد ناداه ليومِ فدى

May no man in al-Sham live who prizes his life too dearly

When Muhammad summons him to a day of self-sacrifice.

فتىً يحدثنا عنه السليم ومن

مثل السليم فتىً إن حدث اعتمدا

A youth of whom al-Salim tells us—and who

Is like al-Salim, a youth trusted whenever he speaks?

قد أطربتني سجاياه فقمت بها

على رياض القوافي شاعراً غردا

His qualities have enraptured me, so I rose, inspired by them,

In the gardens of rhyme, a singing poet.