ألقيت عبأك في مدى الميدان — أحمد الكاشف

ألقيت عبأك في مدى الميدانِ

وبلغت خير مقاصد الإنسانِ

You laid down your burden in the field's expanse,

and attained the finest aims of humankind.

وقضيت في الدنيا حياتك عاملاً

للذكر والعمر الطويل الثاني

You spent your life in this world working

for remembrance and a long second life.

ووفيت بالعهد الكريم لواثق

كان الوفاء له من الإيمان

And you kept the noble pledge to one who trusted,

for whom fidelity was part of faith.

حملتْ أمانة مصر دهراً ذمةٌ

لك عن قواعد مصر والأركان

For ages, a pledge bore Egypt's trust,

yours, on behalf of Egypt's foundations and pillars.

أخفيتها حياً بقومك رحمة

وجعلت موتك موعد الإعلان

You concealed it while alive, out of mercy for your people,

and made your death the time of its disclosure.

باحت بسرك وهو سر الدهر في

هذا المصير رسائل الإخوان

Your secret—time's own secret—was revealed at

this passing by the letters of your friends.

هل للحقيقة كل ما قالوا ولل

تاريخ أم لإثارة الأشجان

Was all they said for truth and for

history, or to stir sorrows?

ذكروا برزئك رزء مصر وأهلها

في سيرة وكرامة وكيان

At your loss, they recalled the loss of Egypt and her people,

in conduct, dignity, and existence.

وتناقلوا عنك الحديث وهم على

آفاق مصر وأنت في الأكفان

They passed accounts of you among themselves, while they stood on

Egypt's horizons and you lay in shrouds.

كل يزكّي في المآزق صنعه

بدليله الماضي وبالبرهان

Each vindicates his actions in predicaments

with his past evidence and with proof.

ولكل راوٍ عذره في واقع

ما كان بُدُّ منه في الإمكان

And every narrator has his excuse for events

that could not possibly have been avoided.

ذكرى تسوء وشر ما يؤذي الفتى

قلق الضمير وحيرة الوجدان

A distressing memory—and the worst things that hurt a man

are an anxious conscience and a bewildered heart.

حانت محاسبة الرجال من الحمى

وكفى به من حاسبٍ ديّان

The homeland's reckoning with men has come,

and it is reckoner and requiter enough.

وتدافعت بالحاسبين ظنونهم

من كل ناحية وكل مكان

Their conjectures drove those reckoning to and fro,

from every direction and every place.

يتساءلون عن اليقين يريحهم

وأمامك الفئتان تحتكمان

They ask one another for certainty to relieve them,

and before you the two factions seek judgment.

ما خان مولاه الوزير وإنما

خانته أمس مودة الألمان

The minister did not betray his lord; rather,

the Germans' friendship betrayed him yesterday.

ملك مضى وأتى سواه موفقاً

لبلاده فهُما له سيان

A king departed, and another came, successful

for his country; to him, the two were alike.

إن لم يكن عم الأمير بديله

فمن الأحق بذلك السلطان

If the emir's uncle was not his replacement,

then who was worthier of that sovereignty?

ما كان من ذهب الزمان بتاجه

هو وحده من فاقدي التيجان

The man whose crown time carried off was not

the only one among those who lost their crowns.

إن الزمان وما رأينا قوة

للحق فيه هو الأثيم الجاني

Time, in which we have seen no strength

for justice, is the sinful offender.

هل كان يمتلك اختيار مصيره

مَن سخطه ورضاه يستويان

Could he choose his own fate,

he whose displeasure and approval count alike?

ولو استطعنا الأمر ما كنّا عدىً

للقوم من أهلٍ ومن جيران

Had the matter been in our power, we would not have been enemies

to those people, kin and neighbors.

تصليهم النيران أيدينا وفي

أكبادنا نجوى وطول حنان

Our hands scorch them with fires, while in

our livers dwell secret whispers and lasting tenderness.

لم ندر هل كانوا الغزاه لمصر أم

حُراسها وحماتها لأوان

We did not know whether they were Egypt's invaders or

her guardians and defenders for a time.

أيّ الفريقين الوفيُّ بوعده

وكلاهما وعد بغير ضمان

Which of the two factions keeps its promise,

when both have promised without a guarantee?

ولطالما حرم الضعيف نصيبه

حول الغنائم أقدر الأقران

How often the weak have been deprived of their share

at the spoils, by the ablest of their peers!

كانت غنيمتنا النجاة ولم يكن

طلب النجاة سجية الشجعان

Our booty was survival, though it was not

the nature of the brave to seek survival.

وهم الذين يرون كل وثيقة

من خادع شراً من العدوان

They are the ones who see every covenant

from a deceiver as worse than aggression,

ويرون مبذول العطاء إذا أتى

بمذلة أدهى من الحرمان

and see a freely offered gift, when it comes

with humiliation, as more disastrous than deprivation.

والمستعين على تناول حقه

بيدي سواه أحق بالخذلان

And one who seeks help to obtain his right

through another's hands is more deserving of abandonment.

حملت حوادث أمس مصر وأين ما

صنع الرجال لحاضر الحدثان

Yesterday's events carried Egypt along; where is what

men have done for the events of the present?

وعلى شروطهم أصرَّ القوم أم

جاءوا بأمر ليس في الحسبان

Did the people insist on their conditions, or

did they bring something unforeseen?

وأناة مرتقب السوانح ما أرى

أم حيرة المتردد المتواني

And is what I see the patience of one awaiting opportunities,

or the bewilderment of a hesitant procrastinator?

إن كان ما أفضى غريمهمُ به

خيراً فما هي حكمة الكتمان

If what their adversary disclosed

was good, what wisdom lies in concealing it?

ولعله المطل الذي شاءت به

فينا السياسة عادة الكتمان

Perhaps it is the stalling through which

politics has sought to make concealment our habit.

في مصر يطلب أهل مصر الحق أم

في لندن العظمى وفي لوزان

Do Egyptians seek justice in Egypt, or

in mighty London and in Lausanne?

الأرض سائرة إلى الأمدين من

حرية قصوى ومن عمران

The earth is moving toward the twin goals of

utmost freedom and civilization.

فممالك تهتز بعد سكونها

وممالك تعتز بعد هوان

So kingdoms shake after their stillness,

and kingdoms grow proud after humiliation.

قد كنت بالطوفان أول منذر

وأنا النذير بعودة الطوفان

You were the first to warn of the flood,

and I warn of the flood's return.

أين الدعاة المخلصون لمصر في

كل الشعوب وسائر البلدان

Where are Egypt's devoted advocates among

all peoples and all countries,

يروون عن آمالها غير الذي

يرويه أهل الإفك والبهتان

telling of her hopes something other than what

the purveyors of falsehood and slander tell?

لو كان ما أنا مرتجيه نافذاً

في الأرض كان لها ضمان أمان

If what I hope for were in force

on earth, she would have a guarantee of safety.

وأقام كلٌّ في ظلال السلم لا

في عهدة الفولاذ والنيران

And all would dwell beneath the shades of peace, not

in the keeping of steel and flames.

والدين في الدنيا المعاملة التي

هي كل ما يرجى من الأديان

And religion in this world is how we treat one another, which

is all that one hopes for from religions.

يا صاحب الشورى وذا الرأي الذي

أغنى عن المقياس والميزان

O master of counsel, and possessor of the judgment that

made measuring rod and balance needless,

ومجاهد الشرقية المثني على

آثاره الشرقان والغربان

and champion of al-Sharqiyya, whose deeds are praised by

the two Easts and the two Wests,

شيخ العشيرة كنت أم شيخ الحمى

وابن البلاد أم الأب المتفاني

were you the elder of the clan or the elder of the homeland,

the country's son or its devoted father?

شقت على الدستور بعد قيامه

عنه نواك وأنت أول باني

Heavy upon the constitution, after its founding,

was your departure from it—you, its first builder.

وبكاك في نوابه وشيوخه

ورثاك في النبلاء والأعيان

It wept for you through its deputies and senators,

and lamented you among nobles and notables,

وتفقد البطل الذي هو قدوة

للشيب صالحة وللشبان

and missed the hero who is a model,

a worthy one for the gray-haired and the young.

يا تارك الوادي وقلبك مشفق

فيه على هذا الأسير العاني

O you who leave the valley, your heart anxious

for this suffering captive within it,

ماذا بنفسك بعد ما فارقته

غير الذي قدمت من إحسان

what is in your soul after you left it,

other than the kindness you had offered?

أولى بها وقد اكتفت شغلاً به

أن تستريح إليه بعد الآن

More fitting for your soul, content with that as its occupation,

is to find rest in it from now on.

أوليتني الود القديم فصنته

لك في الفؤاد فكان من أعواني

You bestowed longstanding affection on me, so I preserved it

for you within my heart, and it became one of my allies.

وأخذت من أولى صحائفك التي

للخير أول مبدئي وبياني

And I took from the earliest of your pages, those devoted

to goodness, my first principle and expression.

أنطقتني بعد السكوت ليالياً

حبست جناني قبل حبس لساني

You made me speak after nights of silence

that held my heart captive before confining my tongue.

مضنى كلانا في البلاد وما الضنى

أنساك واجبها ولا أنساني

Both of us are ailing in this land, but illness has not

made you forget your duty to it, nor made me forget.

وأجل من ملك النفوس رعاية

من قام بالمعروف والعرفان

And noblest among those who hold sway over souls through care

is he who practices kindness and gratitude.

الحق فوق الشيعتين أردته

غير الذي قدمت من قربان

I sought truth above the two factions,

apart from the sacrificial offering I had made.

هل لي مكان في السماء لعلني

ألقى رفاقي غير أهل زماني

Is there a place for me in heaven, where perhaps

I might meet my companions, not the people of my time,

وأفر من مستكبرين تجاهلوا

ذكري وعادوا ينكرون عياني

and flee the arrogant who feigned ignorance of

my name, then went on denying my very presence?

أعليّ يجني من إليه مودتي

ويزيد همي من به سلواني

Does the one to whom I give my affection wrong me,

and does the one in whom I find solace increase my grief?

أنا غاضب للشعب والوادي فمن

أرضاهما يوماً فقد أرضاني

I am angry on behalf of the people and the valley; whoever

has ever pleased them both has indeed pleased me.