لك الشرف الباقي وان رغم العدى

ابي الله الا ان تدوم مخلدا

Yours is enduring honor, despite your foes.

God wills nothing but that you endure immortal.

ترديت بالمجد الاثيل ومالهم

إذا اجتذبوا ذاك الرداء سوى الردى

You have robed yourself in deep-rooted glory, and they have

nothing but death if they tug at that mantle.

وما أنت الا الشمس في الأرض مالها

غناً عن سواها فهي تطلع سرمدا

You are but the sun upon the earth; it has

no sufficiency apart from anything else; so it rises forever.

وما لنظام الكون غيرك كافل

لك الله فاسلم كي نعيش ونسعدا

None but you safeguards the order of the universe.

God guard you: remain safe, that we may live and prosper.

بنورك تهدي من اضل سبيله

وفي الدين والدنيا بطلعتك الهدى

By your light you guide whoever has lost his way.

In religion and worldly life, your appearance brings guidance.

نشرت لواء العدل في كل بلدة

وساويت فيها بالمسود المسودا

You unfurled the banner of justice in every town.

There you made ruler and subject equal.

واسبغت ظل الامن فيها فلم يخف

شذاتك الا زائغ جار واعتدى

You spread the shade of security there; none feared

your sting except one who strayed, oppressed, and transgressed.

وقد زعم الاعداء انك عثرة

الا لا اقال الله عثرة من عدا

The enemies have claimed that you are a stumbling block.

Behold, may God never pardon the stumble of one who attacks!

طلعت بعلم مستنير عليهم

وقد كابدوا ليلا من الجهل اسودا

You rose upon them with radiant knowledge,

while they had endured a night black with ignorance.

لك الفضل والاحسان في مدنية

بها لبسوا برد الرقي المجددا

Yours are the merit and beneficence in a civilization

through which they donned the renewed mantle of progress.

جزى الله عنك الظالمين نكاية

تقوض من بنيانهم ما تشيدا

May God repay the oppressors on your behalf with chastisement

that demolishes whatever they have built of their edifice.

بما اقتبسوا من نور كتبك جهزوا

كتائب تذكو نارهن توقدا

With what they borrowed from the light of your books, they equipped

battalions whose fires blaze fiercely.

وكم قد سعوا يا خيب الله سعيهم

وغادر ذاك الشمل منهم مبددا

How often they have striven—may God foil their striving!

And may He leave their company scattered.

يرومون منا ان نعيش اذلة

وينقاد منا كل صعب معبّدا

They demand that we live abased,

and that every unyielding one among us submit, subdued.

ومن دون خلع العز لبس عجاجة

تمج ببيض الهند اشقر مزبدا

Before casting off honor, we don a cloud of battle-dust

that spews tawny, foaming blood through bright Indian blades.

وما نقموا منا سوى الدين انه

قذى يعتري طرفاً من الشرك ارمدا

They resented nothing in us but religion: it is

a mote afflicting the inflamed eye of polytheism.

فكم جهدوا ان ينقضوا منه مبرما

وان يهدموا منه بناء موطدا

How often they strove to unravel what was firmly bound in it,

and to demolish its firmly established structure!

ولولا دفاع الله عن سرح دينه

لعاث به الوحش الذي بات مرصدا

Were it not for God's defense of His religion's pasture,

the beast lying in ambush would have ravaged it.

إذا قصد التثليث دين محمد

بسوء ابي التوحيد الا محمدا

When the Trinity targets the faith of Muhammad

with evil intent, monotheism accepts none but Muhammad.

وكعبتنا من شاهق العز في حمى

تحدر عنه كل من جاء مصعدا

Our Kaaba is sheltered by the towering height of honor,

from which everyone who comes climbing falls down.

وطيبة قد عزت واضحى منالها

على الرجس من نيل الكواكب ابعدا

Tayba has become impregnable; reaching it has become

farther beyond the unclean than attaining the stars.

وان نفوس المسلمين جميعها

فداء لأرض ضمت الطهر أحمدا

The lives of all Muslims

are a ransom for the land that embraced the pure one, Ahmad.

وما اجمات الاسد الا مشاهد

باعتابها تهوى الجبابر سجدا

The lions' thickets are none but shrines

at whose thresholds mighty tyrants fall prostrate.

على جثث القتلىطريق اجتيازهم

إليها يدوسون القنا المتقصدا

Over the bodies of the slain runs their path of passage;

toward them they tread upon splintered lances.

أتمنع يا ثغر العراق فتحتمي

بعزك أم تعطي على ذلة يدا

Will you resist, O frontier of Iraq, and find protection

in your might, or yield a hand in humiliation?

فإن تكن الأولى فيا رب موطن

شهدت فأضحى للحفيظة مشهدا

If it is the first, then how many a battlefield

you witnessed became a scene of fierce defense of honor!

وان تكن الأخرى فانك جالب

على العرب الأمجاد عارا مخلدا

But if it is the other, you will bring

everlasting shame upon the glorious Arabs.

ألا إنه يوم المحامد فاستبق

إلى الحمد واحذر ان تذم به غدا

Behold, this is a day for glorious deeds; race ahead

toward praise, and beware of being blamed for it tomorrow.

أسرت معالي أمة عربية

فاطلق أسيرا في حماك مقيدا

You have held captive an Arab nation's lofty glories;

release the captive bound within your sanctuary.

وان أسير المجد غال فداؤه

وليس سوى بذل النفوس له فدا

The captive that is glory commands a costly ransom,

and no ransom will suffice but the giving of lives.

فيا معشر العرب البواسل جردوا

ضباً آذنتها الحرب ان تتجردا

O company of valiant Arabs, unsheathe

blades that war has summoned to be bared.

تعودتم خوض الغمار وانما

لكل امرئ من دهره ما تعودا

You are accustomed to plunging into the fray; indeed,

each man gets from his lifetime what he has grown accustomed to.

فما العز إلا ان تشام وتنتضي

وما الذل إلا ان تشام وتغمدا

Honor is only that blades be drawn and unsheathed,

and humiliation only that they be put away and sheathed.

وما هي إلا جولة الخيل شزبا

عوادي يحملن الوشيج المسددا

It is but a charge of lean horses,

racing on, bearing well-aimed spears.

وهبوا لها شيباً ومردا فإنكم

امام عدو قد طغى وتمردا

Rise for it, graybeards and beardless youths, for you are

before an enemy who has transgressed and rebelled.

ولا تلبسوا إلا القلوب فإنها

سرابيل بأس لا الدلاص المسرادا

Don nothing but your hearts, for they are

garments of valor, not gleaming, closely linked mail.

بكل فتى يمشي العرضنة في الوغى

ويمضي إذا الهيابة النكس عردا

With every young man who swaggers through the fray

and presses on when the frightened weakling flees.

مطاعين تحمر القنا في اكفهم

وتخضر منها بالجود والندا

Mighty spear-thrusters, whose lances redden in their hands

and from those hands grow green with generosity and bounty.

بآية من سيم الظلامة منكم

تنمروا ستعدى الحسام المهندا

By the sign of those among you subjected to oppression,

be fierce as leopards; [seek aid from] the Indian-tempered sword.

إلام وكم نغضي الجفون على القذا

ألم يأن ان نستوبئ الذل موردا

How long, how often, shall we close our eyelids over grit?

Is it not time to deem humiliation a tainted watering place?

وقد وعد الرحمن نصرة دينه

ولن يخلف الرحمن للنصر موعدا

The Most Merciful has promised victory for His religion,

and the Most Merciful will never break His promise of victory.

لك الخير كن فيه المفدى وانني

أعيذك فيه أن تكون المفندا

May good be yours: be the cherished one on this day; I

seek protection for you from becoming the censured one on it.

أفي كل يوم في صميم وانني

رواح لغارات الصليب ومغتدى

Is there, every day, in the very heart—and indeed I [text unclear]—

an evening and a morning departure for the raids of the Cross?

مراكش تشكو والجزائر مثلها

تكايد ما يفري قلوبا واكبدا

Marrakesh laments, and Algeria likewise

struggles against what rends hearts and livers.

وتونس بعد الأنس أوحش ربعها

وأصبح فيها الجو اقتم أربدا

Tunis, once familiar and welcoming, has become desolate,

and its sky has become dusky and murky.

وان شئت ان تذري على الدين عبرة

على ان فيض الدمع لا ينقع الصدا

If you wish to shed a tear over religion,

although a flood of tears does not quench thirst,

فعج في طرابلس وقف متلهفا

على ربع مجد قد عفا وتابدا

then turn aside to Tripoli and stand grief-stricken

over a dwelling of glory that has fallen into ruin and desolation.

وما نسيت بالروملي وقائع

يطيش عليها حلم من قد تجلدا

Nor have I forgotten the battles in Rumelia,

at which even the steadfast lose their composure.

وفي الهند فاصرف نحوها العين كي ترى

بها الظلم يبدو للعيان مجسدا

And in India—turn your eye toward it, that you may see

oppression appearing there, embodied before your eyes.

وقد خملت بعد النباهة والعلا

وقد املقت بعد الرغائب والجدا

It has fallen into obscurity after distinction and eminence,

and become impoverished after abundant riches and bounty.

واغنى بلاد الله كانت وعهدها

قريب فاضحت للخصاصة معهدا

It was the richest of God's lands, and that time

is recent; yet it has become a home to destitution.

جواهرها عادت لجورج غنيمة

يحلى بها تاج العلاء المنضدا

Its jewels have become spoils for George,

adorning the jewel-set crown of exalted rank.

وان جئت مصرا وهي دار فضيلة

بها القوم قد طابوا نجارا ومحتدا

If you come to Egypt, a home of virtue,

where the people are noble in stock and ancestry,

فابلغ رجال الحل والعقد منهم

نشيد لهيف يقذف الجمر منشدا

convey to those among them who bind and loose

the song of an anguished man who spits embers as he sings.

وقل لهم كيف الرقاد على الذي

يبيت كريم القوم منه مسهدا

Tell them: how can you sleep over what

keeps the noble man among his people awake at night?

وقد تم على شوك الهوان كانكم

سقيتم ولا ساق سوى العجز مرقدا

And [it was completed: wording unclear] upon the thorns of humiliation, as though you

were given a sleeping draught, with helplessness alone as cupbearer.

هلموا لكي نسترجع المجد والعلى

وينصر منا البعض بعضاً ويسعدا

Come, that we may regain glory and eminence,

and that each of us may support and aid the others.

فان التي كنتم ترومون نيلها

دنا شأوها منكم وقد كان ابعدا

For what you have been seeking to attain,

its goal has drawn near you, though once far away.

لنا باجتماع الشمل عز وانه

اساس عليه عزنا قد تمهدا

In unity we have strength; it is

the foundation upon which our strength is firmly laid.

وما اقتنص الاعداء منا سوى الذي

يشذّ فيغدوا ضاحياً متفردا

Our enemies have hunted down none of us but whoever

strays and becomes exposed and alone.

ومن كان عيش الذل غاية قصده

فلا حاز مأمولا ولا نال مقصدا

Whoever makes a life of humiliation his utmost aim,

may he gain no hope and attain no goal.

ومن سكنت جنبيه نفس كريمة

يعيش كريماً أو يموت فيحمدا

Whoever has a noble soul dwelling between his ribs

lives nobly, or dies and is praised.

إذا الشعب لم يشعب صدوع كيانه

بحد الضبا راح الكيان مهددا

If the people do not mend the fissures in their being

with the edge of swords, their very being becomes threatened.

فلا تجعلوا غير العزائم عصمة

ولا تطلبوا غير الصوارم منجدا

Take nothing but firm resolve as your safeguard,

and seek no helper but sharp swords.

وما كالحسام العضب للداء حاسم

وناهيك بالآسي إذا هوجردا

No remedy cuts away disease like the keen-edged sword;

and what a healer it is when unsheathed!

به يتجلى الحق ابلج واضحاً

سناه ببرق من شباه توقدا

Through it, truth appears radiant and clear,

its light kindled by a lightning-flash from the sword's edge.