حيوا الأريكة والسلطان والعلما

وفاخروا بجديد السؤدد الأمما

Salute the throne, the sultan, and the scholars,

and vie with the nations in newly won eminence.

وعاهدوا الدولة الكبرى التي لبثت

ترعى لمثلكمُ الميثاق والذمما

Pledge yourselves to the great power that has continued

to honor the covenant and its obligations toward people like you.

وارضوا بعاقبة الحكم الذي رضيت

به الممالك فاللّه الذي حكما

Accept the outcome of the judgment that

the kingdoms approved, for God is the one who judged.

دار الزمان متيحاً للكنانة ما

توقعته مذيعاً خير ما كتما

Time has turned, granting Egypt, the Quiver, what

she expected, revealing the best of what time concealed.

إن كان لا بد من راع لأرضكمُ

فمن ألفناه أولى من رعى وحمى

If your land must have a shepherd,

then the one we have known is the worthiest to tend and protect.

غنيمةٌ مصر ينميها ويكثرها

ويملأ الأرض منها خير من غنما

Egypt is a prize; he nurtures and increases it,

and fills the earth with its bounty—the best of those who won spoils.

كانت مسارح غزلان فحصَّنها

جيش الضراغم حتى أصبحت أجما

She was a roaming-ground for gazelles, then was fortified

by an army of lions, until she became lion-thickets.

هل تخسرون لها ذا عفة وغنى

لتستعيضوا لها الغرثان والنهما

Would you deprive her of a man of restraint and wealth,

to replace him for her with the famished and the ravenous?

وتؤثرون على غالي نظامكمُ

فوضى تفرق للأوطان ما التأما

Would you prefer, over your precious order,

chaos that scatters what has united in the homelands?

أجر السكينة ما أعطوا وما وعدوا

فلم يريدوا سوى أن تقبلوا النعما

What they gave and promised is the reward for tranquility;

they wanted only that you accept the blessings.

ومخطئٌ باخس الغلاب سيرته

وعدله خطأ الغلاب أن ظلما

Mistaken is he who undervalues the conqueror's conduct

and his justice—as mistaken as the conqueror when he wrongs.

ولا يضر بلاداً وهي آمنة

كابن البلاد وحاميها إذا اختصما

Nothing harms a country while it is secure

like its own son and its protector when they quarrel.

لو يعقل الترس الترك أنكم

أمثالهم بعد ما كنتم لهم خدما

If only the shield—the Turks—understood that you

are their equals, after once being their servants.

هم أمس سادتكم واليوم جيرتكم

ولا مودة حتى يطفئوا الضرما

Yesterday they were your masters; today, your neighbors,

and there can be no affection until they extinguish the blaze.

فاستكملوا الجيش من أبنائكم حذراً

أحق بالجيش عمرانٌ زكا ونما

So fill out the army with your sons, as a precaution;

a thriving, growing civilization has the strongest claim to an army.

ولا تبيتوا على عجز يعولكم

من ليس يأمن عدواناً ومزدحما

Do not pass the night in helplessness, supported by

one who is himself unsafe from aggression and conflict.

من أين إن لم يكن منكم لكم عدد

تدري النفوس إباء الضيم والشمما

Where, unless you have a force drawn from yourselves,

can souls learn to reject humiliation and hold their heads high?

حماة مصر وما للقوم من سببٍ

إلا إليكم إذا ما حادث دهما

Protectors of Egypt, the people have no recourse

but to you when a calamity descends.

حميتمُ قبل مصر الترك من حنق

تهدد الحصن والبوغاز مقتحما

Before Egypt, you protected the Turks from a fury

that threatened to storm the fortress and the strait.

واليوم جيشكمُ ماضٍ وجيشهمُ

ماضٍ ليلتحما يوماً ويصطدما

Today your army advances, and their army

advances, so that one day they may engage and clash.

عذر الفريقين عذر المكرهين على

ما يتقيه ويأباه محبهما

Both sides have the excuse of those compelled to

what one who loves them both shuns and abhors.

فأنتمُ وهمُ والحرب بينكمُ

خصمان ما سرت الأضغان بينهما

You and they, with war between you,

are two adversaries between whom no grudges have coursed.

أرضى لأسطولكم حمل العتاب إلى

تلك الديار ولا أرضاه منتقما

I approve your fleet's bearing reproach to

those lands, but do not approve it as an avenger.

إن كنتم خير من خاض الوغى ورمى

فأنتمُ خير من أغضى ومن رحما

If you are the best of those who plunged into battle and shot,

then you are the best in forbearance and mercy.

أبقوا على ذلك الجار القريب عسى

يعود يوماً لكم إلفاً إذا سلما

Spare that close neighbor; perhaps

he may one day become your friend again, if he survives unharmed.

لنا السبيل إلى استقلالنا ولكم

أن لا تروا للأذى منا يداً وفما

Ours is the path to our independence, and yours the right

to see no hand or mouth of ours employed to harm you.

ومن رأى منكم أشياء تصرفه

عن حقه وتلقاها فقد لؤما

Whoever among you encounters things that turn him

from his right, and accepts them, has acted basely.

يا للشعوب أمام المالكين لهم

ساروا وحوشاً إلى الميدان أم غنما

Alas for the peoples before those who own them,

whether they march to the battlefield as beasts or as sheep!

أمست حياضهمُ جمر الجحيم كما

أضحت غياضهمُ الأحجار والحمما

Their pools have become hell's embers, just as

their groves have become stones and molten rock.

ولست أدري وما للبغي من سند

بنى لدولته الجبار أم هدما

I do not know—and oppression has no support—

whether the tyrant has built up his state or demolished it.

جناية العلم مفتون يدلُّ به

وللتنازع والطغيان ما علما

Knowledge's crime is a man beguiled by it, who boasts of it;

what he has learned serves conflict and tyranny.

نأيت يا صلح حتى بت تخطر لي

طيفاً لمدَّكرٍ رؤيا لمن وهما

You have grown so distant, O peace, that you come to my mind

as a phantom to one remembering, a dream to one imagining.

وطلت يا حرب حتى خفت من شرر

حول الفريقين أن يصلاك غيرهما

You have lasted so long, O war, that I fear, from the sparks

around the two sides, that others may burn in you.

هزائمٌ وانتصارات مداولة

فلست أعرف منصوراً ومنهزما

Defeats and victories alternate,

so I can distinguish neither victor nor vanquished.

لكل عرش أعاصير تهدده

وليس ينجو سوى من عف واعتصما

Every throne has tempests threatening it,

and none escapes but one who shows restraint and seeks refuge.

إن فارق الملك واليهِ ووارثُهُ

فعمُّه من تولى الملك واستلما

If the throne has lost its ruler and heir,

his uncle is the one who has taken and assumed the throne,

مستبقياً للحمى ما كاد يفقده

مجدداً لرواء البيت ما قدما

preserving for the realm what it almost lost,

renewing what had aged in the splendor of the house.

حسينُ يا عمَّ عباسٍ وتاليَهُ

على الرعية تنفي عنهم التهما

Husayn, O Abbas's uncle and successor

over the people, you dispel accusations against them.

أرانيَ اليوم في عزلٍ وتوليةٍ

موزعَ القلب والوجدان بينكما

I find myself today, amid dismissal and appointment,

with heart and feelings divided between you both.

نصحته فتحاشاني وجاوزني

إلى أراجيف من أغرى ومن أثما

I advised him, but he avoided me and passed me by

for the false rumors of those who incited and those who sinned.

لعله وله في غيره عظة

من الملوك يؤاسى بعد ما ندما

Perhaps—with a lesson for him in other

kings—he may be consoled after his regret.

لك الرضى بك والتسليم أعلنه

صنع البصير بما استخفى وما انبهما

I proclaim to you my acceptance and submission,

as one discerning the hidden and obscure would do,

مبايعاً بيعة الحر الوفي لمن

سرّت ولايته الأعراب والعجما

pledging the allegiance of a free, loyal man to one

whose rule has gladdened the Bedouin Arabs and non-Arabs,

ومن تناقلت الآفاق دعوته

فهزت القدس والبطحاء والحرما

and whose call has been carried across the horizons,

stirring Jerusalem, al-Batha, and the Sanctuary.

أمانة كنت عند اللّه غالية

للمشرقين فأداها وسرّهما

A precious trust you were in God's keeping

for the two Easts; He delivered it and gladdened them both.

الجاهلية والإسلام ما شهدا

في مصر غيرك سلطاناً خلالهما

The pre-Islamic age and Islam have never seen

any sultan in Egypt but you throughout their spans.

رؤيا أبٍ ومُنى جدٍّ تداولها

غرُّ السلاطين والأقيال قبلهما

A father's vision and a grandfather's wishes, passed around

by illustrious sultans and princes before them both.

أدركت مملكةً في ساعتين ومن

قاد الجيوش التوى لم يمتلك قدما

You attained a kingdom in two hours, while one who

led armies faltered, possessing not a foot of land.

بلغتها علويَّ النفس متَّخذا

أسبابك الحزم والإخلاص والكرما

You reached it, lofty in soul, taking

resolve, sincerity, and generosity as your means.

نصر ظفرت به والسلم في بلد

يسقيه من كوثر ساقي سواه دما

A victory you won, and peace, in a land

watered with Kawthar by one who gives others blood to drink.

إن العميد الذي راقتك دعوته

ليعرفن لك الآثار والهمما

Indeed, the chief whose invitation pleased you

will surely acknowledge your deeds and aspirations.

ما جاء يحتمل الإصلاح في يده

إلا لتشتركا فيه وتقتسما

He came bearing reform in his hand

only so that you both might share it and divide it between you.

نعم الأمين على الوادي يسلِّمُه

حرّاً إذا بلغ الشعبان رشدهما

A fine guardian of the valley, who will hand it over

free when the two peoples attain maturity.

ولا يعود إلى القطرين ما جزعا

منه فحسبهما ما مرَّ حسبهما

May what they dreaded never return to the two lands;

what has passed is enough for them—enough for them both.

هل يبخل المرء بالدنيا ويزعم أن

يفدى بروح سواه عزَّ ما زعما

Can a man begrudge worldly goods, yet claim that

he should be ransomed with another's life? How hard his claim is to credit!

وهل يضن بمال المسلمين على

مثلي ويمنحه التمثال والصنما

And can he begrudge the Muslims' money to

one like me, yet bestow it on the statue and the idol?

عشرين عاماً أواليه ويمنعني

حق الجزاء فإن ذكرته سئما

For twenty years I have been loyal to him, yet he denies me

my rightful reward; if I remind him, he grows weary.

إن كان قد ضاع شعري عند سدَّتِه

فقد أمنت عليه النيل والهرما

If my poetry has been lost at his threshold,

I have entrusted it to the Nile and the Pyramid.

مضت حوادث كم قاسيتُها لججاً

دون الرفاق وكم عالجتها ظلما

Events have passed; how often I braved them as surging seas,

without companions, and how often I wrestled with their darkness!

وغاب من خاف أشعاري فأسلمني

لمن يرى قلمي في قلبه ألما

The man who feared my poems departed, handing me over

to one who sees my pen as pain within his heart.

غيران يشفيه مني أن يكلفني

جهد المسخر كيلا أحسن النغما

A jealous man, soothed at my expense by burdening me with

a forced laborer's toil, lest I perfect my song.

مناصب الشعراء الصالحين حُلَىً

إذا الحسود تمناها لهم لجما

The offices of worthy poets are ornaments,

even when the envious man wishes them to be bridles for them.

نبذت حاشية واخترت حاشية

كريمة تكرم الآداب والشيما

You cast off a retinue and chose a retinue,

a noble one, honoring letters and virtues.

وكان عنوان ما أقبلت تصنعه

للقوم والوطن الأعوان والحشما

The sign of what you set about doing

for the people and the homeland was your aides and attendants.

حسبي شمائلهم أجراً ورونقهم

شكراً لمن عرض الآيات والحكما

Their virtues suffice me as a reward, and their radiance

as thanks to one who offered verses and wisdom.

إني سفير فريق المنشئين إلى

من حق كل فريق عنده لزما

I am the envoy of the company of writers to

one for whom every group's rights are binding.

هم عظَّموك بشعر معجب فإذا

كافأته بقبول طيب عظما

They exalted you in admirable verse; and when

you reward it with gracious acceptance, it grows in stature.

ولست أدري وآمالي معلقة

بهذه بُدِئَ الإنشاد أم خُتِما

I do not know, while my hopes hang

on this, whether the recital has begun or ended.