نعم الضمان جلوسك الميمون — أحمد الكاشف

نعم الضمان جلوسك الميمونُ

للشرق وهو الآمن المأمونُ

Your auspicious accession is an excellent safeguard

for the East, a safeguard secure and trusted.

في مثل هذا اليوم قامت حجة

واهتز برهان لمصر مبين

On a day like this, a proof stood forth,

and a clear demonstration for Egypt stirred.

قد كان ميعاد المنى فوفى به

قدرٌ يجلُّ وعوده ويصون

It was indeed the appointed time of hopes, honored

by a destiny that reveres and guards its promises.

وأتاح للبلد الأمين متوجاً

حسنت به الدنيا وفاز الدين

And it granted the secure land a crowned ruler,

through whom the world grew fair and faith triumphed.

ذكرى جلوسك للرعية بهجة

ولتاج مصر وعرشها تمكين

The anniversary of your accession brings joy to your subjects,

and strength to Egypt's crown and throne.

هذي الرسائل والوفود شواهد

أن الولاء عقيدة ويقين

These letters and delegations bear witness

that loyalty is a creed and a certainty.

فحديثه ليقينه متتبِّعٌ

وطريفه بتليده مقرون

Thus its words follow its conviction,

and its new forms are joined to its old.

في عيدك ابتهل العباد ضراعة

يتلمسون السلم وهو ثمين

On your festival, the worshippers prayed in supplication,

seeking peace, a precious thing.

أمنت بلايا الحرب مصر وإنها

أدنى إليها واصطلتها الصين

Egypt was safe from war's afflictions, though war

was nearer to her, while China burned in it.

كان الذي رضيت به من دهرها

واللّه مرضيها بما سيكون

What she welcomed from her days was—

and God will please her with what is to come—

فضل الذي فيه استراح مجاهد

ونجا طريد واطمأن رهين

the grace of him under whom a fighter rested,

an exile escaped, and a captive found security.

وسلا به فيما تجشم عالم

جدت به محن وطال أنين

And through him a world found solace for what it endured,

where ordeals arose and groaning lingered long.

الناس تفنى والحديد غداً ولا

تفنى عوادي الناس وهي فنون

People and iron shall perish tomorrow, yet

human aggressions, in their many forms, do not perish.

يتقاتلون على حطيم زائل

ولربما قتل الخدين خدين

They fight one another over vanishing wreckage,

and often one close friend kills another.

وارحمتاه على شباب ممالك

غاضت ميادينٌ بهم وسنين

Ah, pity for the young men of kingdoms,

with whom battlefields and years ebbed away.

كانوا أماني أهلِهم وديارهم

فدهتمُ قبل المنون منون

They were the hopes of their families and homelands,

but death overtook them before their destined death.

حتام تحوي في القبور كواكب

واليوم ترتشف السموم غصون

How long shall stars be gathered into graves,

while today boughs sip poison?

وإلام يحرق عالَمٌ متألق

وإلام يغرق ماخر مشحون

And how long must a radiant world be burned,

and how long must a laden vessel sink?

وإلام يطمع هادم في موحش

ترتاع منه بصائر وعيون

And how long shall a destroyer crave a horror

from which minds and eyes recoil?

غاض الدم المسفوك حتى كاد من

جزع يسابقه الدم المحقون

The spilled blood ebbed, until, from

terror, the unspilled blood almost raced ahead of it.

وأشد من نار الوغى وحديدها

شجو على شهدائها وشجون

And fiercer than battle's fire and iron

are grief for its martyrs and sorrows upon sorrows.

لو يستطيع العالم المسكون ما

حمل الأنام العالم المسكون

If the inhabited world could, it would not

bear humankind, this inhabited world,

مستغنياً بالصخر لا يهتاجه

للسيئات وساوسٌ وظنون

content with rock, which is not stirred

to evil by whisperings and suspicions.

لم يجن جهلٌ ما جنى العلم الذي

جاز المدى فارتد وهو جنون

Ignorance did not wreak what knowledge wreaked—knowledge that

overstepped its bounds and returned as madness.

ذنب جناه على البسيطة أهلها

لتنوء أجيال به وقرون

A sin the earth's inhabitants committed against it,

so generations and centuries stagger beneath its weight.

أمسوا ومما أحدثوا من نارها

حوت ومن فولاذها شاهين

They came to this: among what they devised from its fire

was a whale, and from its steel a falcon.

وغدا مكان ثمارها المقذوف وال

مشبوب والمشحوذ والمسنون

And its fruits gave way to things hurled and

set ablaze, sharpened and whetted.

لو أغنت الحق الشرائع والنهى

ما أعوزته كتائب وحصون

If laws and reason were sufficient for justice,

it would have no need of battalions and fortresses.

يا ويل قوم نال منهم صارم

ما لم ينله منهم القانون

Woe to a people from whom a sharp sword exacted

what the law could not exact from them.

أولى بمن أكل الحشا حياً ومن

شرب الدم الزقّوم والغسلين

Fitter for him who devoured entrails in life, and him who

drank blood, are Zaqqum and ghislin.

من للقويّ البأس أليق غير من

يقوى به المظلوم والمغبون

Who better merits mighty strength than one

through whom the oppressed and cheated grow strong?

يرجو الضعيف الحول من عقباه ما

يخشى المذلُّ بحوله المفتون

The powerless hopes its outcome will bring what

the oppressor, bewitched by his own might, fears.

الفتح أعجز أن يسر مملَّكاً

يبكي سليبٌ حوله وطعين

Conquest cannot gladden a crowned ruler

when the dispossessed and wounded weep around him.

والعزل بالملك الظلوم أحق من

حكم يعيب فتوحه ويشين

And deposition befits the tyrannical king more than

a reign that tarnishes and disgraces his conquests.

وأحق بالجيش العظيم ونصره

من جيشه التأمين والتمدين

And worthier of the great army and its victory

than its warlike surge are security and civilization.

أنذرت بالحرب العوان وعنَّ لي

من كل شعب سره المكنون

I warned of fierce, recurring war, and there appeared to me

the hidden secret of every people.

والآن أحلم باليمين تمدها

للصلح من خلف الستار يمين

And now I dream of a right hand, extended

for peace by a right hand from behind the curtain.

يدنو الفريق من الفريق ويستوي

في كل دعوى دائن ومدين

One side draws near the other, and equality prevails

in every claim between creditor and debtor.

وعسى المعين على الجرائم والأذى

يمسي على الإحسان وهو معين

And may the one who aided crime and harm

become a helper in deeds of kindness.

صلح إلى طول المدى لا هدنة

فيها يجدد بطشه الموهون

A peace for all time, not a truce

in which the weakened one renews his violence.

صلح يوفق بين أهل الأرض لا

صلح مذل للضعيف مهين

A peace that reconciles the peoples of the earth, not

a peace that humiliates and degrades the weak.

كلٌّ يودُّ السلم لولا خوفه

أن السلام مكيدة وكمين

Each would welcome peace, were it not for his fear

that peace is a stratagem and an ambush.

نادى من الأرض الجديدة فردها

ورئيسها وحكيمها ولسون

From the New World its peerless man called out,

its president and sage, Wilson.

يرجو الذي بالرفق عيسى ناله

بالبأس موسى بالغنى قارون

He hopes for what Jesus attained through gentleness,

Moses through might, and Qarun through wealth.

يضع القيود لكل ذي تاج فلا

يبغي على عهد الإخاء خؤون

He sets restraints on every crowned ruler, so no

traitor transgresses the covenant of brotherhood.

قامت قيامة كل مملكة ومن

بعد القيامة يرجع التكوين

The Day of Judgment has come for every kingdom, and

after Judgment, creation returns.

ويعود هذا الخلق خلقاً طيباً

من طبعه التقويم والتحسين

And this creation becomes a good creation once more,

with reform and improvement in its nature.

يرعى ويرحم بعضهم بعضاً فلا

ثأر ولا غل هناك دفين

They care for and show mercy to one another, so no

vengeance or buried rancor remains there.

للملك عندك يا فؤاد مسائل

كبرى كما ترجو له وشئون

In your keeping, O Fuad, kingship has matters

of great moment, as you wish for it, and affairs.

في كل يوم من زمانك موسم

للمخلصين يسرهم ويزين

Every day of your time brings a festival

for the devoted, delighting and adorning them.

وإذا أردت فإن مصر خميلة

وإذا أردت فإن مصر عرين

And if you wish, Egypt is a leafy grove;

and if you wish, Egypt is a lion's den.

العام وضَّاح المحيا مقبل

والآس بين يديه والنسرين

The year approaches, radiant of face,

with myrtle and wild roses before it.

طربت ببشراه البلاد وهزها

شوق إلى آمالها وحنين

The land rejoiced at its glad tidings, and was stirred

by longing for its hopes and yearning.

يهدي السلام إلى الأنام وسيمة

أيامه ولكل أمر حين

It brings peace to humankind; fair are

its days, and every matter has its time.