ما جاء قبلك للتخليد إنسان

عنا له الظلم والظلام أو دانوا

No human before you came to be immortalized,

To whom oppression and oppressors bowed or submitted;

أو دونت صحف التاريخ معجزة

كمعجزاتك فيها العقل برهان

Nor did history’s pages record a miracle

Like your miracles, in which reason is the proof.

ألم تكن أنت في صحراء موحشة

الواحة السمحة المثلى لمن عانوا

Were you not, in a desolate desert,

The gracious, perfect oasis for those who suffered?

ألم تكن أنت في دهماء قاسية

النجم أضواؤه هدي وعرفان

Were you not, in cruel darkness,

The star whose rays are guidance and understanding?

ألم تكن أنت محيي الناس مكرمهم

من بعد ما أغرقوا في الموت أو هانوا

Were you not the one who revived people and honored them,

After they were drowned in death or brought low?

ألم تكن أنت للدنيا معلمها

حين الخرافة أديان وسلطان

Were you not the world’s teacher,

When superstition was religion and sovereign power?

ألم تكن أنت للأسرى محررهم

والأسر والرق مثل الموت ألوان

Were you not the captives’ liberator,

While captivity and slavery, like death, took many forms?

ألم تكن أنت للإنسان حجته

على الفناء إذا الإنسان إنسان

Were you not humankind’s argument

Against annihilation, if a human is truly human?

يا أيها البطل الأميّ عش أبدا

ذكراك عطر وأضواء وألحان

O unlettered hero, live forever;

Your remembrance is fragrance, lights, and melodies.

إن الزمان الذي نورت طلعته

من نوره سطعت للخلد أزمان

Indeed, the age whose face you illuminated—

From its light, ages shone for eternity.

لولا تعالميكم اللاتي قد ازدهرت

مدى العصور لعم الأرض طوفان

Were it not for your teachings, which have flourished

Through the ages, a flood would have engulfed the earth.

والجهل أخطر من إعصار كارثة

فما سواه لرزء الناس شيطان

And ignorance is a calamity more dangerous than a hurricane;

For no devil but it brings affliction upon people.

ميلادك الحر ميلاد يفوح شذى

كما يفوح بشعر الحب بستان

Your free birth is a birth that breathes fragrance,

As a garden is fragrant with the poetry of love.

قالوا أتنظم شعرا في محبّته

فالشعر للصادق الإحساس ميزان

They said, “Do you compose verse out of love for him?”

For poetry is a measure of sincere feeling.

وأيّشعر لمثلي كيفما عظمت

رموزه في الذي نجواه قرآن

And what verse can one like me compose, however lofty

Its symbols, about one whose intimate speech is the Qur’an—

من حرر العقل حين الناس أكثرهم

دون البهائم والأديان أوثان

Who freed reason when most people

Were beneath beasts, and religions were idols;

من ثار في الناس لا تخشى عقيدته

إلا الإله فلم يردعه طغيان

Who rose up among people, his faith fearing none

But God, so no tyranny deterred him;

من علم الناس معنى السلم في زمن

كان الأعزّ به بطش وعدوان

Who taught people the meaning of peace in an age

When brute force and aggression were supreme;

من لقّن الحكمة الشورى بسيرته

ووزّع الحب فالأعداء إخوان

Who schooled Wisdom in consultation through his example,

And spread love, so enemies became brothers;

من رام كل الورى أنصار دعوته

على المدى واصطفاهم أينما كانوا

Who sought all humankind as supporters of his call

For all time, and chose them wherever they were;

من راض للناس أحلاما لعزتهم

وبعض إلهامه السامي السبرمان

Who tamed dreams for people, for their dignity,

And part of his sublime inspiration is the superman?

ماذا أقول وشعري دون ما ملكت

نهاي حين جميع الكون آذان

What can I say, when my verse falls short of what is held

In my mind, while the whole universe is ears?

حسبي قليلي فنزري في جواهره

من وحي من حبه كنز وديوان

My little suffices me, for the jewels within my scant verse

Are inspired by one whose love is a treasure and a book of verse.

في ظله كلنا أبناء ملّته

فما تتاءت برغم البعد صلبان

In his shade, we are all sons of his faith;

So crosses have not grown distant, despite the distance;

وكلنا يوم هذا العيد أمته

إن العروبة إيمان وأوطان

And on the day of this feast, we are all his community;

Indeed, Arabness is faith and homelands.