مهد الحضارة للعروبة كلها

كيف انتهيت إلى نهاية ذلها

Cradle of civilization for the whole Arab world,

how did you reach the utmost limit of its humiliation?

قد كنت سابقة القرون بعلمها

فرجعت في ذيل القرون وجهلها

Once you outstripped the ages with your learning,

then fell back to the tail of the ages and their ignorance.

عجبت تماثيل رفعن جلالة

فهوت لما بلغته خسة مثلها

Statues raised in majesty marveled,

then toppled at the baseness their counterparts had reached.

وكأنما في أمسها قد اشعرت

أفعالهم فتحطمت من هولها

As though, in their bygone days, they had been informed

of their deeds, and shattered at their horror.

إن كان هذا وحي دين محمد

فعبادة الأوثان نعمة أهلها

If this is the revelation of Muhammad's faith,

then idol worship is a blessing for its people.

حاشا وحاشا تلك نكبة أمة

بالحاكمين القاتلين لنبلها

Never, never! That is a nation's calamity,

through rulers who murder its nobility:

من كل سيف قد تثلم مجده

في الموبقات ويستعز بفعلها

every sword whose glory has been notched

by deadly sins, yet takes pride in committing them;

أو كل أبكم صار يحسب قاضيا

والمومياء أجل منه بأصلها

or every mute now reckoned a judge,

though a mummy is nobler than he in its origins;

أو كل زنديق عريق عابد

للمال يحترف الدعارة والها

or every inveterate heretic, a worshipper

of money, plying prostitution in infatuation;

أو كل من زعم الإمارة حينما

عين الحقارة ما استباح مؤلها

or everyone who claims princely rule, when

what he permits is sheer vileness, while he is deified;

أو كل مندوب تحشرج صوته

مثل الجنادب وهو دون أذلها

or every delegate whose voice rattles

like grasshoppers, though he is beneath their lowliest;

أو كل من زعم الإمامة بينما

حكت الذباب بطنها وبظلها

or everyone who claims the imamate, while

her belly, with her shadow, mimics flies;

أو كل مأفون يصيح مغالطا

والشخر يتبع ما روى مستألها

or every fool who shouts with sophistry,

and snorting follows his tale as he claims divinity.

وطن تجسمت العروبة نكبة

فيه ولا نكبات صور وبعلها

A homeland: Arabhood took bodily form as calamity

within it—beyond even the calamities of Tyre and its Baal.

الناطحات به شمخن سوابقا

واليوم تسحقها الصروف بنعلها

Its sky-piercing towers once rose ahead of all,

and today the turns of fate crush them beneath their sandal.

والهندسات وسد مأرب خلفت

لهفى الخرائب في مهانة زملها

The works of engineering and the dam of Ma'rib have left

grief-stricken ruins, shrouded in humiliation.

والسامقات من المدارس كلها

درست ولم يك مثلها من قبلها

And all the lofty schools

have vanished; none like them had existed before.

لا ظلم ظلم الدهر عدل صارخ

ما دام أهل الأرض نقمة عدلها

No injustice! Time's injustice is resounding justice,

so long as earth's people are the bane of its justice.

يا منبت الكندي يا من ينتمي

نخب الفوارس والعقول لعقلها

O birthplace of al-Kindi, O land to which belong

the finest knights and minds, through your intellect;

من أدهشت كسرى بحكمة عمروها

من أنجبت بلقيس صورة دلها

you who amazed Kisra with the wisdom of your 'Amr,

you who bore Bilqis, the very image of your charm;

من شيدت غمدان من إلهامها

وفحولة الشعراء دون أقلها

you who raised Ghumdan from your inspiration,

with the poets' mastery beneath your least inspiration;

من أطلعت صنعاء نجم حضارة

عمت بأنفس روعة وأجلها

you who brought forth Sana'a, a star of civilization,

spreading splendor, the most precious and majestic;

من لا نزال نحار في آياتها

إذ تغمر التاريخ سيرة فضلها

you whose wonders still bewilder us,

as the story of your excellence floods history:

كيف استحلت إلى مباءة سوقة

عملوا على هدر الكرامة كلها

how were you transformed into a haunt of rabble

who labored to squander all dignity?

جعلوا البلاد وأهلها كبهائم

موبوءة حبست على إسطبلها

They made the country and its people like beasts,

plague-ridden, confined to their stable.

القات تمضغه فيجري سمه

فيها فتركع نشوة لمذلها

They chew qat, and its poison runs

through them; intoxicated, they bow to their humiliator.

وإمامنا يحيى يمجد ويله

شعرا ويكنز تبره من ويلها

And our Imam Yahya glorifies his woe

in verse, and hoards his gold from hers.

أسفي العروبة في الضجيج عريقة

الافخرات بخيلها وبرجلها

Alas! Arabhood is deeply rooted in clamor,

boasting of its cavalry and infantry!

أمم العروبة في الضجيج عريقة

الفاخرات بخيلها وبرجلها

The nations of Arabhood are deeply rooted in clamor,

boasting of their cavalry and infantry;

تشكو الطغاة وحين تهمل أختها

في الغل تصبح من تهش لغلها

they complain of tyrants, yet when they neglect their sister

in chains, they become those who welcome her fetters.

إن الحوادث كلها عبر لكم

يا غافلين عن الحياة وقولها

All these events are lessons for you,

O heedless of life and what it says.

تتستّرون على الفضائح ضلة

ولطالما خانت عهود محلها

You cover up scandals in error,

and how often covenants have betrayed her land!

فتمكنون لسارق ولمارق

جعلتهما صنعاء غاية شغلها

Thus you give power to a thief and a renegade,

whom Sana'a has made its chief concern.

ليت ابن خلدون وتلك ربوعة

حي ليفصح رأيه عن ختلها

Would that Ibn Khaldun—those are his dwelling-places—

were alive to voice his judgment on her deceit.

أو ليت لي شعر الزبيري الذي

في النفي ناح لخطبها ولثكلها

Or would that I had al-Zubayri's poetry, which

in exile lamented her calamity and bereavement;

أو ليت لي يوما عواصف أحمد

وأبي فراس مزمجرا من أجلها

or would that, for one day, I had the tempests of Ahmad

and Abu Firas, thundering for her sake,

وأبي العلاء العبقري وغيرهم

من أهلها قد أترعوا من نهلها

and the genius Abu al-'Ala' and others

of her people, who drank their fill from her waters,

المسهمين بعلمهم وبفنهم

في رفعة الإنسان أو في بذلها

contributing their learning and their art

to humanity's elevation, or to her generous giving.

أو ليت لي كالشنفرى غضباته

أو كامرىء القيس الوفاء لنصلها

Or would that I had, like al-Shanfara, his bursts of wrath,

or, like Imru' al-Qays, loyalty to her blade;

أو شأن مالك من سلالة حمير

في الدين والتقوى لطهر محلها

or the stature of Malik, of Himyar's lineage,

in faith and piety, for the purity of her abode;

أو وعظ نجم الدين رن كأنه

قدر يحذر في حماسة خلها

or Najm al-Din's admonition, ringing as though

it were fate, fervently warning her friend;

أو باس سيف الدولة العالي الذرى

المستعز بأصله في سهلها

or the valor of Sayf al-Dawla, of lofty peaks,

taking pride in his roots in her plain;

ونهى الفراهيدي الذي أحيا اللغى

بعروضه وبحذقه في شكلها

and al-Farahidi's intellect, which revived languages

through his prosody and his skill in their vocalization;

وسنا البهاء وكم يداوي شعره

مرضى النفوس العانيات بسله

and al-Baha's radiance—how often his poetry heals

sick souls afflicted by its wasting disease;

وبروج صرواح التي لما تزل

أطلالها تروي الخلود لطلها

and the towers of Sirwah, whose

ruins still tell their dew of immortality;

وهياكلا ما زال علقمة بها

يوحي السيادة والجلال لجلها

and temples where 'Alqama still

inspires sovereignty and majesty in most of them.

يا ليت لي هذا وذاك وبضة

من روح علقمة الشهير بفحلها

O would that I had this and that, and a flash

of the spirit of 'Alqama, famed as her 'Stallion,'

حتى أهزّ السادرين لعلّهم

يتنبهون إلى عواقب قتلها

so I might shake the heedless, that perhaps

they may awaken to the consequences of killing her.