عيد وماذا سرني فأنادي

ذهب الرجاء من الحبيس الصادي

A feast day—and what has gladdened me, that I should call out?

Hope has departed from the thirsty captive.

وبأي تبيان أهنِّئُ معرضاً

لا يقبلنَّ شفاعة الأعياد

And with what clear words shall I congratulate one who turns away,

Who will not accept the intercession of feast days?

ما لي إذا لم ألق عندك موضعاً

ولهذه الأعلام والأجناد

If I find no place with you, what have I to do

With these banners and troops?

عرف الوزير الفارسي مكانتي

في دولة الإنشاء والإنشاد

The Persian minister recognized my standing

In the realm of composition and recitation.

وأثابني ذاك الغريب لما رأى

من عزتي وسجيتي وجهادي

And that stranger rewarded me for what he saw

Of my dignity, my character, and my striving.

لولا محبته إليك وشعره

لم أعترف يوماً له بأياد

Were it not for his love for you and his poetry,

I would never have acknowledged any favors from him.

والرزق ميسور ولولا نخوتي

ومروءتي أصبحت رق جواد

And livelihood is readily found; were it not for my pride

And my honor, I would have become a generous man's slave.

قربت شاعرك الجليل فما اقتدى

بك واحدٌ من أهل هذا الوادي

You brought your eminent poet close, yet no one followed

Your example among the people of this valley.

ما زلت للأشعار تكرمه وما

لك غير ملتفت إلى الأنداد

You have kept honoring him for his poetry; yet why

Do you pay no heed to his peers?

نائين مضطربين لولا رفقهم

وحنانهم كانوا من الزهاد

Distant and troubled—were it not for their gentleness

And tenderness, they would have been among the ascetics.

لا يسألونك مرة إقطاعهم

أرضاً وحسبهمُ قليل حصاد

They do not ask you even once to grant them

Land; a little harvest is enough for them.

جعلوا فداك نفوسهم وتعرضوا

لغريمك الجبار في الميعاد

They made their lives a ransom for you, and faced

Your mighty adversary at the appointed time.

واستجمعوا لبقية لولاهمُ

ذهبت تصاريفٌ بها وعواد

And they rallied for a remnant which, but for them,

Would have been swept away by vicissitudes and calamities.

قد نزهوك عن الشريك وأكبروا

قطريك عن حام سواك وفاد

They exalted you above any partner, and deemed

Your two lands too great for any protector or redeemer but you.

جعلوا وجوههمُ صحائف ودِّهم

وسوادَ أعينهم أعزَّ مداد

They made their faces pages of their affection,

And the blackness of their eyes the most precious ink.

ويبشرون بلادهم بنجاتها

وحياتها والبيض في الأغماد

And they bring their country glad tidings of its deliverance

And its life, while white blades lie in their sheaths.

ويرون لينك للدخيل وإن قسا

حق الضيوف عليك والرواد

And they regard your gentleness toward the stranger—even if he is harsh—as

The right that guests and visitors have upon you.

فاعطف على نصحاء شعب صاغر

ما زال بين سواعد ومهاد

So show kindness to the sincere counselors of a humbled people,

Still between arms and a cradle.

فالشعر مفتقر إلى ذي نجدة

ولربما استغنى عن النقاد

For poetry needs someone who will come to its aid,

And may well do without critics.

إن شئت فهو صناعة كسبية

كصناعة النجار والحداد

If you wish, it is an acquired craft,

Like the craft of the carpenter and the blacksmith.

وإذا أردت فإنه وحي كما

نزل الكتاب على نبيٍّ هاد

And if you will, it is revelation, just as

The Book descended upon a guiding prophet.

هل نال إسماعيلُ من شعرائه

ما نلت من شعرائك الأمجاد

Did Ismail receive from his poets

What you received from your illustrious poets,

الواهبي ألبابهم وقلوبهم

لبناء مملكة ورفع عماد

Who give their minds and hearts

To build a kingdom and raise its pillars?

أيكون وردك زاخراً متضرِّباً

ويُذاد عنه أطهرُ الوراد

Can your watering place be brimming and surging,

While the purest of those seeking water are driven from it?

أم يرحلنَّ عن الرياض حمامُها

والنسر ممسٍ في الرياض وغاد

Or shall the gardens' doves depart from them,

While the vulture is in the gardens at evening and at dawn?

أرأيتَ مصر غنية عنهم فما

لهمُ سوى السودان خير عتاد

Do you consider Egypt to have no need of them? Then

They have no better resource than Sudan.

إن فاتهم في الخطب حظهمُ فما

يرجون من أرض هناك جماد

If their share eludes them in adversity, what

Can they hope for from a barren land there?

وأَحَرُّ من صحرائها ورمالها

شوق القلوب إليك والأكباد

And hotter than its desert and its sands

Is the longing of hearts and livers for you.

ما قدر ذي الألقاب يخلو كيسه

من درهمين وداره من زاد

What is the worth of a titled man whose purse lacks

Even two dirhams, and whose house lacks provisions?

أي النوازع فيك غيَّر فطرتي

وبأي إحسان ملكت قيادي

Which impulse in you has changed my nature,

And by what kindness have you taken hold of my reins?

أحسبتني أحد الذين حرمتهم

فتذرعوا بالإفك والإفساد

Did you think me one of those whom you deprived,

Who then resorted to falsehood and corruption?

ووهبتهم فتهافتوا ومنعتهم

فسطوا بألسنةٍ هناك حداد

And you gave to them, and they swarmed; you withheld from them,

And they lashed out there with sharp tongues.

كن كيف شئتَ فطاعتي لك والرضى

سيان في التقريب والإبعاد

Be as you wish; my obedience to you and my contentment

Are the same whether you draw me near or keep me far.

ما الشعر إلا آية لك ينجلي

فيها مثال شمائلي وسدادي

Poetry is but a sign for you; there shines forth

Within it the likeness of my character and my sound judgment.

إن غبتُ فالذكر الذي ترضى وإن

أحضرْ فملء نواظر الأشهاد

If I am absent, there is the remembrance you approve; and if

I am present, I fill the onlookers' eyes.

فليهن مصرك مهرجانك وليبت

أوفى دعائك في أسىً وسهاد

So may your festival gladden your Egypt, and let

Your most faithful well-wisher spend the night in sorrow and sleeplessness.

قعدت به عن زينةٍ ومواكبٍ

شكوى العليل وزحمة العوّاد

He was kept from finery and processions by

The sick man's suffering and the throng of visitors.

لم يغن إسراري إليك شكايتي

وقد انتهيت بها إلى الإرعاد

Privately confiding my complaint to you did not avail,

And now I have carried it to the point of thundering.

إن الذي استعصى على عذّاله

لا يرهبنَّ شماتة الحساد

Indeed, one who has defied his reproachers

Will not fear the gloating of the envious.