ردي على وطني حماة ذماره

يا بنت حكمته وام صغاره

Give my homeland back the guardians of its honor,

O daughter of its wisdom and mother of its little ones.

ردي عليه رجاله فرجاله

غلمان دارك لا شيوخ دياره

Restore its men to it, for its men are

The boys of your house, not the elders of its dwellings.

الناشئون على عبادة ارزه

يتعلمون الموت تحت شعاره

Those raised in worship of its cedar

Learn to die beneath its banner.

هم ريق الأمل الذي يحيا به

والموت يضرب سيفه بجواره

They are the fresh bloom of the hope by which it lives,

While death swings its sword beside it.

أمل به استبقى نضارة روضه

وبليل رياه وصدح هزاره

A hope by which it has preserved its garden's freshness,

And its fragrance's moist breath and its nightingale's song.

فهي المراتع ما عهدت ونجدها

في آبه كالسفح في آذاره

So its pastures are as I have known them, and their uplands

In its August are like the lower slopes in its March.

خلعت يد الباري عليها حلةً

من مثل ما خلعت على اخداره

The Creator's hand has clothed them in a robe

Like that with which it clothed His secluded chambers.

ثوبٌ يغار عليؤه خالقه فلا

يرضى بمد يدٍ إلى أزراره

A robe its Maker guards jealously; He will not

Consent to a hand reaching toward its buttons.

ثوبٌ تمرّ به القرون ووشيه

ذو جدَّةٍ فكأنه ابن نهاره

A robe through which the centuries pass, yet its embroidery

Is ever new, as though born this very day.

ضافٍ يجرّ على الجبال ذيوله

والبرق يلمع من خلال صداره

Ample, it trails its skirts over the mountains,

And lightning gleams through its bodice.

والأرز من شاراته وحديثه

ما قال ربك عنه في أسفاره

The cedar is among its emblems, and its story

Is what your Lord has said of it in His scriptures.

طافت ملائكة السماء بدوحه

وحنت مباسمها على أزهاره

Heaven's angels circled its great trees,

And their smiling mouths bent over its flowers.

ومشى مرتلها يغنيه بما

غناه داودٌ على قيثاره

And heaven's chanter walked, singing to it what

David sang upon his lyre.

ان لم يكن لبنان جنة خالق

الدنيا يكن لبنان شرفة داره

If Lebanon is not the paradise of the Creator

Of the world, then Lebanon is the balcony of His home.

منه تطل الحور سكرى وهي لم

ترشف سوى السلسال من أنهاره

From it the houris gaze out, intoxicated, though they have not

Sipped anything but the sweet water of its rivers.

فتناسم الفواح من ريحانه

وتغازل الصداح من أطياره

So they breathe in the fragrance of its sweet herbs,

And flirt with its singing birds.

وحيالها شلاله متدفقاً

والكوثر الفوار من فواره

And before them, its waterfall pours forth,

And Kawthar gushes from its fountain.

ولجين برودنيه مترقرقاً

والكرم يضحك عن نضيد نضاره

And the silver of its Berdawni ripples,

And the vineyard smiles, revealing its clustered gold.

والبدر من خلف الهضاب كأنه

وجه المليحة لاح خلف إزاره

And the full moon behind the hills is like

A beauty's face appearing behind its veil.

اللَه للجبل المفدى مجتنى

ثمر النعيم ومجتلى أنواره

God! The cherished mountain, a place to gather

The fruits of bliss and to behold its lights.

وبمقلتي صنينه ومشيبه

يملي على الأجيال آي وقاره

And in my eyes, its Sannine, with its gray hair,

Dictates to the generations the verses of its dignity.

وبمهجتي نفحاته قدسيةً

تقصي عن المصدور طيف بواره

And within my soul, its sacred breezes

Banish from the consumptive the specter of his doom.

يرتادها والعمر في آصاله

فترده والعمر في أسحاره

He seeks them out when life is in its evening,

And they send him back with life in its early dawn.

لبنان منتجع الحياة ومعقلٌ

تتزحلق الآفات عن أسواره

Lebanon is life's retreat and a fortress

From whose walls afflictions slide away.

ويزل ساري الغيم من شرفاته

متبركاً منه بلثم جداره

And the night-roaming cloud slips from its battlements,

Seeking blessing from it by kissing its wall.

ان روع الحدثان مهجة شوفه

بمكارهٍ تغشاه تلو مكاره

If time's calamities terrify the heart of its Chouf,

With afflictions that overtake it, one after another,

فالشوق عنه يستقل بروعه

والشوف عنه يستقل بعاره

Then longing alone bears its terror on its behalf,

And the Chouf alone bears its shame on its behalf.

يا ويحه والرزق ضاق سبيله

والجار غير مؤمنٍ من جاره

Alas for it, when livelihood's path has narrowed,

And no neighbor is safe from his neighbor.

يا ويحه والروض جف نضيره

لما جنى الجاني على أكاره

Alas for it, when the garden's fresh growth has withered,

When the wrongdoer wronged its tiller.

لو جاء فخر الدين يشهد حاله

لبكى عليه وجدَّ في استنكاره

If Fakhr al-Din came to witness its condition,

He would weep over it and earnestly denounce it.

أو رددت أخبار ما فيه على

قبر الشهاب لضج من أخباره

Or were reports of what happens there repeated over

Al-Shihab's grave, he would cry out at its news.

قل للصفا ومسامع الصفصاف ما

ثلةٌ عليه تنال من أسراره

Tell al-Safa and the willows' listening ears what

A band assailing it can glean from its secrets.

إن البنين بنيه قد عافوا الصفا

من عيشهم ولووا على أكداره

Indeed, its sons—its very sons—have spurned the serenity

Of their lives and turned toward its troubled dregs.

وتجنبوا نفس النعيم وبرده

ميلاً إلى نفس الجحيم وناره

They shunned the breath of bliss and its coolness,

Inclining toward the breath of Hell and its fire.

ومتى تجد بلداً يُضام بريئه

قل ان ربك قد قضى بدماره

Whenever you find a land whose innocent are oppressed,

Say that your Lord has decreed its destruction.

والدهر يعرف كيف يثأر لا الذي

سفك الدماءَ وضلَّ موضع ثاره

And time knows how to avenge, unlike the one

Who shed blood and missed the target of his vengeance.

اسفي على الشوف العزيز يذله

أشراره بغياً على أخياره

My grief for the noble Chouf, humiliated by

Its wicked, in aggression against its good people!

اربى على أدبائه سفهاؤه

وعبيدهُ ظهروا على أحراره

Its fools have outstripped its men of letters,

And its slaves have prevailed over its free men.

فتضعضع العقال في خلواته

وتحير الرهبان في أدياره

So the sages were shaken in its retreats,

And the monks were bewildered in its monasteries.

اسفي عليه وهو ملعب صبوتي

ومقيل غسان الشباب الفاره

My grief for it, the playground of my youthful ardor,

And the noonday refuge of vigorous youth's first bloom.

عبث الغرور به فكدر ورده

الصافي ونكر طيبات عراره

Vanity toyed with it and muddied its drinking water,

Once clear, and spoiled its wildflowers' sweet scents.

وأعارني نوح الحمام لموقف

كنت الخليق له بصدح كناره

And lent me the doves' lament for an occasion

At which I should have sung its canary's song.

هي زفرة من عاثر افضى بها

الوطن الشجي إلى مقيل عثاره

It is a sigh from one who has stumbled, confided by

The grieving homeland to the one who lifts it from its fall.

وطن يضج إلى الشبيبة كلما

التمس المقذف من حماة ذماره

A homeland that cries out to youth whenever

It seeks a dauntless champion among the guardians of its honor.

أي معهد الأدب النضير ومهتدى

ذهن الصغير ومغتذى افكاره

O academy of flourishing letters, and guide for

The child's mind and nourishment for his thoughts,

عذراً لبارحة تمر وعيدك

الذهبي وضاءٌ على أقماره

Pardon a passing ill wind, while your anniversary,

Golden, shines brightly above its moons.

أنا من يرى لبنان فوق حياته

ويرى منار النجم دون مناره

I am one who sees Lebanon above his own life,

And sees the star's beacon beneath its beacon,

ويرى فدى لبنان كل قطينه

من مرد فتيته إلى أحباره

And sees all its inhabitants as sacrifices for Lebanon,

From its beardless youths to its religious scholars.

أنا من يرى فخراً بلثم ترابه

ويود بالاجفان مسح غباره

I am one who finds pride in kissing its soil,

And longs to wipe away its dust with his eyelids.

أنا آيةٌ منقوشةٌ في صخره

وشرارةٌ مطبوعةٌ بغراره

I am a verse engraved in its rock,

And a spark imprinted on its sword's edge.