1. اركبْ إلى المجدِ أنضاء الأعاصيرِ

    وَجُبْ مع السَّعْد أحشْاءَ الدياجيرِ

    Ride the worn-out mounts of whirlwinds toward glory,

    and with good fortune traverse the entrails of pitch-dark nights.

  2. ومُدَّ بالجودِ كفاً ربما وَسِعَتْ

    مُلْكَ الأنامِ وتصريفَ المقادير

    And stretch forth in generosity a hand that has perhaps embraced

    the dominion of humankind and the ordering of destinies.

  3. وَجَرِّدِ السيفَ مطروراً تصولُ به

    يمينُ عزمٍ كحدِّ السيفِ مطرور

    And unsheathe a sharpened sword, wielded fiercely by

    a right hand of resolve, sharpened like the sword's edge.

  4. ذا رونقٍ لو نواتيه المُنَى لجرى

    مَعَ السّماحِ على تلك الأسارير

    Possessing a gleam—were wishes its sailors, it would sail

    with generosity along those gleaming streaks.

  5. وَنُبْ عن الدينِ والدنيا فقد برئا

    إليك منْ كلِّ تقديمٍ وتأخير

    Stand in for faith and the world, for both have relinquished

    to you all advancing and delaying.

  6. أشبهتَ آباءَك الصيدَ الذين سَعَوا

    في البأس والجودِ سَعْيا غيرَ مكفور

    You resemble your lordly forefathers, who strove

    in valor and generosity with striving never unacknowledged.

  7. من كلِّ ذي أثر في كلِّ حادثةٍ

    يسْمُو به كلُّ فخرٍ عنك مأثور

    Each a man of lasting deeds in every crisis,

    through whose deeds every honor handed down about you rises high.

  8. وذي جَنَابٍ متى تُلْمِمْ بجانبه

    فاربعْ بسيناءَ واخلعْ جانبَ الطور

    And each possessed a sanctuary: whenever you draw near his side,

    rest in Sinai, and take off your sandals beside the Mount.

  9. ترى الدنانيرَ تهمي من أكفهمُ

    سحّاً وأوجههمْ مثلُ الدنانير

    You see dinars pour down from their palms

    in torrents, while their faces are like dinars.

  10. قومٌ إبادٌ أبوهم حين تَنْسِبُهُمْ

    مجدٌ لعَمْرُ أبيهمْ غيرُ منزور

    A people [epithet unclear] whose father, when you trace their lineage,

    is glory—by their father's life—undiminished.

  11. أكلما جَنَّ ليلٌ جُبْتُ غيهبه

    بواضحٍ من سنا مرآك مشهور

    Did I, whenever night fell, cross its deepest gloom

    by a clear, renowned beam from your radiant appearance?

  12. أو لاح صبحٌ بدتْ سيماكَ باهرةً

    بين البشائر منه والتباشير

    Or, when dawn shone, did your dazzling features appear

    amid its glad omens and first glimmers?

  13. في جُنْح كلِّ ظلامٍ لا تزودُ به

    كُدْرُ القطا غيرَ نَجْثٍ بالمناقير

    In the wing of every darkness, where no provisions are found by

    the dusky sandgrouse except by scratching with their beaks,

  14. ترى الكواكبَ حَيْرَى في دُجَاهُ كما

    جالتْ حَجَى الماء في خُضْرِ القوارير

    you see the stars bewildered in its gloom, as

    water-bubbles swirl in green glass vessels.

  15. وكل هاجرةٍ تَغْلي مراجلُها

    كأنما مُصْطَلاها قلبُ موتور

    And every midday heat whose cauldrons boil,

    as though its furnace were the heart of one bereaved of kin.

  16. يبيتُ حرباؤُهَا بالليلِ منتصباً

    وإن أطلَّ فلم ينظرْ إلى النور

    Its chameleon spends the night standing upright,

    and even when it peers out, it does not look toward the light.

  17. تحمى الشكائمُ في أشْدَاقها حَنَقاً

    كأنَّما هيَ منه في التنانير

    The bits grow hot in their jaws with fury,

    as though, because of it, they were in ovens.

  18. تعصي القنا وهي أدناها إلى كَرَمٍ

    أثناءَ مُنْتَصِبٍ منها ومجرور

    The lances, though nearest to noble quality, resist

    the bending of their upright shafts and their trailing ones.

  19. مهلاً فقد نِلْتَ في أمنٍ وفي دَعَةٍ

    ما نال غيرُك في خَوْفٍ وتغرير

    Gently! You have attained in safety and ease

    what others attained in fear and peril.

  20. لك البسيطةُ تطويها وتنشرُهَا

    عن مُقْتضَى كلِّ مطويٍّ وَمَنْشُور

    The earth is yours: you fold it and unfold it

    as every folded and unfolded thing requires.

  21. والبحرُ مُضْطَرمُ الأمواجِ زاخرُها

    ترى المعارفَ فيه كالمناكير

    And the sea—its waves raging and overflowing—

    you see familiar things within it as strange.

  22. موْفٍ على النفسِ مستوفٍ حُشاشتها

    يُصوِّرُ الموتَ فيها كلَّ تصوير

    Looming over the soul, exhausting its last remnant of life,

    depicting death within it in every form.

  23. قُلْ ما بدا لك إلا في غواربه

    تسمو بملْ عيون مثلها صور

    Say what you will, except concerning its wave-crests:

    forms like them rise, filling the eyes.

  24. طوْراً كما هزَّ من عطفيه ذو خَنَثٍ

    ناغى الصّبابين تَنْزيف وتَفْتير

    At times like an effeminate man swaying his flanks,

    cooing to the cupbearers in intoxication and languor;

  25. وتارةً مثلَ ما يهتاجُ مُخْتَبلُ

    عالَ الأُسَى غِبَّ تعذيبٍ وتعذير

    at other times like the raging of a madman,

    with mounting sorrow after torment and reproach.

  26. ركبتَه تَتَصدَّى الموجَ عن عُرُضٍ

    على مباحٍ مِنَ الأهواء محظور

    You rode it, confronting the waves broadside,

    upon what is open to desires, yet forbidden.

  27. إذا طما مَوْجُهُ أو طمَّ قمتَ له

    بمخبرٍ عنه في البأساءِ مخبور

    When its waves swelled or engulfed all, you stood against it

    with a mettle that tells its tale, proved in adversity.

  28. وكلما اربدَّ يستشري نداكَ له

    فَطَبَّقَ الأرضَ مسجورٌ كمسجور

    And whenever it darkened, your bounty blazed up to meet it,

    till a blazing sea, like its fellow, overspread the earth.

  29. كما تَخَلّلَ برقٌ عُرْضَ ساريةٍ

    فلم يَزِدْهُ نَدَاها غيرَ تسعير

    As lightning pierces the breadth of a night-traveling raincloud,

    whose moisture only heightens its blaze.

  30. تراك كنتَ عَصا مُوسى براحتِهِ

    أو كانَ عَزْمُكَ هوْلض النفخِ في الصور

    Were you, I wonder, Moses' staff within his palm,

    or was your resolve the terror of the blast upon the Trumpet?

  31. تَسْمو بهمّكَ والأهوال ساميةٌ

    وللردى ثَمَّ سهمٌ غير مغمور

    You soar with your ambition while terrors tower,

    and Death has there a share by no means slight.

  32. بكرٌ عوانٌ فتاةٌ كهلةٌ ذَهَبَتْ

    أُعْجُوبَةً بين تأنيثٍ وتذكير

    A virgin, a matron, a girl, a mature woman—she went forth

    a marvel between the feminine and the masculine.

  33. حُبْلَى لها فَتَكاتٌ في أجِنّتها

    على اقتدار لهم فيها وتكدير

    Pregnant, she deals deadly blows to her unborn children,

    despite their power within her—and their distress.

  34. واهاً لهم بين جَنْبَيْها وأنفسُهُمْ

    تَجِيشُ بين التراقي والحناجير

    Alas for them between her flanks, while their souls

    surge between their collarbones and their throats!

  35. كأنَّهمْ بين مَثْنَاها وَمَلْعَبها

    ظنونُ حيرانَ أو أنْفَاسُ مَبْهُور

    As though they were, between her turns and her play,

    a bewildered man's doubts, or a breathless man's gasps.

  36. عامتْ وطارتْ وقالتْ للرِّياحِ ألاَ

    عُوْجي على أثَري إن شئْتِ أو طيري

    She swam, she flew, and said to the winds: “Listen!

    Turn along my wake if you wish—or fly!”

  37. حتى تَرَقَّتْ مِنَ اللأْوَا إلى مَلِكٍ

    مُؤَيَّدٍ منكَ في اللأَوْاءِ منصور

    Until from hardship she rose to a king

    upheld by you in hardship, granted victory.