صبرا امي فذي الشخوص خيال

والحادثات كما علمت ظلال

Patience, my mother: these figures are an illusion,

and happenings, as you know, are shadows.

صبرا ستندرج الشؤن وتنقضي

بنا ويطوي البارزات زوال

Patience: affairs will be folded away and pass

with us; vanishing will enfold all visible things.

كم غصة زالت بايسر فرصة

وتبدلت بالرمشة الاحوال

How many a choking grief has vanished at the slightest opening,

and circumstances changed in a blink.

مر الزمان وكان فيه من الاولى

مثل الجبال الراميات رجال

Time passed, and among those of old there were

men like towering mountains.

واليوم اصبحنا نقلقل ركبنا

وتسير اول ركبنا الانذال

Today we have come to jolt our caravan,

while the base march at its head.

قد سادنا سود الزنوج داس سد

ة مجدنا العالي الذرى الاسفال

Black men of the Zanj have ruled us; trampled is the threshold

of our lofty-peaked glory, by the lowliest.

والفضل اضحى كالفضول وممكن ال

فعل الجميل ممنع ومحال

Virtue has become meddling, and even a possible

good deed is barred and impossible.

والعلم والعلماءُ في طي الخمو

ل واهل رفراف العلى والجهال

Learning and scholars lie folded in obscurity,

while the ignorant dwell beneath eminence's fluttering canopy.

والشرع يندب حظه في حطة

وعلى وتبرة ضده الافعال

Sacred law laments its lot in degradation,

while deeds follow the cadence of its opposite.

والحق مطموس الشرافة فوقه

من لوث اقدام اللئام رمال

Truth's nobility is effaced; above it

lie sands befouled by the feet of the vile.

والثعلبان سطا وصار مبارزاً

وبقيد ضنك اثقل الريبال

The fox has seized power and become a challenger,

while the lion is weighed down with a harsh fetter.

ونرى الحماقة اطلقت اصحابها

والعقل ها هو للفحول عقال

We see folly has set its followers free,

while reason—there it is—is a hobble for the stallions.

والدين يبكي غربة القت به

في وهدة من دونها الاهوال

Religion weeps for an estrangement that has cast it

into a pit deeper than the terrors themselves.

وغدا البليد فصيح قافلة الحمى

وبمنبر المرقى هو القوال

The dullard has become the eloquent spokesman of the sanctuary's caravan,

and on the raised pulpit he is the glib orator.

فلتات وزر للزمان تظنها

ليل عليه من القتام سدال

The age's sinful lapses—you would think them

a night overhung with curtains of dark dust.

عبثت بنا امم حديث قديمها

عجب ونعجب كيف آل الحال

Nations have toyed with us; the tale of their past

is a marvel, and we marvel at what things have become.

كانت جحاجحها تهز لاسمنا

رهقا وترعد منهم الابطال

Their chieftains used to tremble at our name

in dread, and their heroes would shudder.

ويلوذ اعظمهم بنا ويمسه

ان رام غير رحابنا اذلال

Their greatest sought refuge with us, and would suffer,

if he sought other courts than ours, humiliation.

واليوم اشعاثا غدونا والربى

هملا وفينا للرماة نبال

Today we have become disheveled, and the hilltops

lie untended, while archers' arrows lodge in us.

فالمنهج النظريُّ قل رجاله

ولذاك طم الجاهلين ضلال

The path of reasoned inquiry has few men,

and so misguidance has engulfed the ignorant.

وتفرقت شيعا كتائب امة

في الكون ما لرجالها امثال

A nation's battalions have split into factions;

in all creation, its men have no equals.

جهلت أواخرها أوائلها وقد

سبق الكرام السارق المحتال

Its later generations knew nothing of its first, and

the crafty thief has outstripped the noble.

طرحوا الصناعة وهي دينا تبتغي

فالكل حلس مراحه بطال

They abandoned craftsmanship, though it is sought as a religious duty;

so each is an idle fixture of his own abode.

وتعلموا الزور القبيح فقولهم

كذب وزور فاسد ووبال

They learned vile falsehood, and so their speech

is lies, corrupt deceit, and ruin.

رام التفرنج بعضهم فتمزقوا

في السير لا سهل ولا اجبال

Some sought to become European, and they fell apart

along the way—neither on plains nor in mountains.

صقلوا الشعور ومسدوا أثوابهم

ومن البطالة فوقهم أثقال

They polished their hair and smoothed their clothes,

while weights of idleness bear down upon them.

رفضوا لسوء الحظ عهد نبيهم

وعدوا على الدين المبين وصالوا

Through ill fortune they rejected their Prophet's covenant,

and assailed the manifest faith, charging against it.

آراؤهم خطاء وكل زعومهم

غلط وبر طريقهم أوحال

Their opinions are error, and all their assertions

are mistaken; the dry ground of their road is mire.

لا العلم بالنظر استفز بعزمهم

وبهم تلألأ من سناه كمال

Neither was learning through inquiry roused by their resolve,

nor did perfection shine through them from its radiance.

وكذا الصناعة لم تؤيدوهمهم

كي يستر العيب القبيح المال

Nor has industry supported their delusion,

so that money might conceal the ugly flaw.

خلطوا السياسة بالفساد لجهلهم

فتباين الافعال والاقوال

In their ignorance they mingled politics with corruption,

hence the divergence between deeds and words.

ونرى فئاما يزعمون أصالة

يحكي البكور العكس والاصال

We see multitudes claiming noble origins,

yet mornings and evenings tell the opposite.

هدموا دعامات الحياء فلا يد

ترجى ولا منهم ينال نوال

They demolished the pillars of modesty; no helping hand

can be hoped for, nor any bounty obtained from them.

يتهافتون على المطالع فعلهم

قول بشقشقة العناد يقال

They scramble toward the heights; their action

is talk uttered in the bluster of obstinacy.

وعصائبنا زعموا العلوم تخبطا

فالقيل غاية علمهم والقال

Our factions have claimed learning in blind confusion,

so hearsay and gossip are the limit of their knowledge.

جهلوا الزمان وحكمة الشرع المصا

ن فاظلم الارجاء والاطلال

They knew neither their age nor the wisdom of safeguarded sacred law,

and so the regions and ruins grew dark.

وطغام قوم تزعم الارشاد لا

قال ولا عند التزاحم حال

The rabble of a people claims to guide, yet has no

say, nor standing when the crowd presses.

قد اخطاؤا النهج السوي وابطلت

عزم العزائم منهم الآمال

They have missed the straight path; undone

is their steadfast resolve by their hopes.

ومراتب للاسفلين مباحة

كانت تميس ومرطها الاجلال

And ranks have been opened to the lowliest,

ranks that once swayed proudly, robed in reverence.

قد دنستها عصبة لاعمها

عم ولا الخال المنكر خال

A band has defiled them: its paternal uncle

is no uncle, nor its disowned maternal uncle an uncle.

سرقوا ثباب الناس واستتروا بها

وكأن اضرار الانام حلال

They stole people's clothes and hid beneath them,

as though harming mankind were lawful.

وتمتعوا بدم البرية فانتشوا

منه كان دمائها جريال

They delighted in the blood of humankind and grew drunk

on it, as though their blood were crimson wine.

يتشدقون كانهم بفعالهم

احيوا الانام وبئست الافعال

They declaim grandly, as though by their deeds

they had brought mankind to life—wretched deeds!

ولحمقهم يستحمقون الناس لا

هجعوا وراء نسيمهم اشعال

In their folly they deem people fools. May they never

sleep! Behind their breeze are flames.

بذلوا الاكاذيب الكثيفة للورى

ولهم لنهب العالمين حبال

They lavish thick lies upon mankind,

and they have ropes for plundering all the world's people.

وتوسعوا بالفانيات وتارة

يتوسع الزمار والطبال

They have enriched themselves with perishable things; at times,

the piper and the drummer also prosper.

قد خربوا نعم العباد وشيدوا

قللا لهم ومآلها الاقلال

They have ruined the people's blessings and built

lofty towers for themselves, whose end is poverty.

لم تبق قط مع الخيانة نعمة

فلتذكر الاشباه والامثال

No blessing has ever endured alongside betrayal;

so let the parallels and examples be recalled.

ولرب مظلوم يراع بصدمة

يطوى بها ضمن الجلال جمال

Many a wronged man is terrified by a blow

through which beauty is enfolded within majesty;

فتثور افئدة الكرام لنصره

ويهز من سجف العلا زلزال

then noble hearts rise up to champion him,

and an earthquake shakes the veils of the heights.

ولرب ذي ظلم يقوم بخزيه

دهماء لم تفتح لها اقفال

Many a wrongdoer is brought to disgrace by

a dark calamity whose locks were never opened.

يامي صبرا واستقرى انها

عثرات حال ما لها استقبال

My mother, be patient and be still: these are

the stumblings of a condition that has no future.

تنقد بترا فاركني وكأنهم

رمضانهم ما بعده شوال

They break apart, cut short; rest easy, as though

their Ramadan had no Shawwal after it.

وتدبرى حكما لربك مضمر

في طيها التفصيل والاجمال

Ponder your Lord's wisdoms: concealed

within their folds are detail and summation.